Andrew Guard

L'Étoile / Côtes du Jura

 

I first met Nicolas Jacob when he was working with Jean-François Ganevat around 2012, he has a face you don't forget. When I found out he was going out on his own I immediately started looking around for bottles to taste and that did not prove easy as he was only working from a single hectare in L’Étoile.

Things came to fruition in 2018 when I was eating at the fabulous restaurant, La Cachette in Valence, with Thierry Allemand. He asked me to choose a wine and I spied a bottle of the 2016 Chardonnay Là-Bas on the list; I ordered it and was very impressed indeed, I could see the Ganevat style of precision and finesse and when I asked Thierry what he thought he said it was "quite good" which if you know him, means he really quite liked it.

In December 2018, Nicolas acquired an additional 4 hectares of vines in Augea which is in the Sud-Revermont and south of Rotalier; in fact it is close to the boundary of the Saone-et-Loire departement. It came with a small home where he now lives with his wife and daughter and it has a cellar that he has scrupulously cleaned and organized and is perfect for his needs.

With two years of élévage for his white wines and, until recently, only the singular hectare of vines, he has until now only had tiny amounts of each of his cuvées available: Là-Haut, Là-Bas, Les Perrières Savagnin, and Les Perrières Pinot Noir. The wines are very rare and hard to find even in Jura! and despite having access to 5 hectares now, they will remain so as the quality is sublime.

We are very happy to be able to share these superb wines with our customers in Australia

Written by Andrew Guard — November 04, 2020