Jurançon, the sleeping beauty of the Southwest… is gently waking up! Long known for its sweet wines, it has been experiencing a change in its wine production in recent years, with winemakers increasingly turning to dry white wines… Led by a group of young people who champion terroir wines!! It must be said that the mosaic of exceptional terroirs, many located on hillsides, are worthy of producing great dry white wines for gastronomy and aging!
Indeed, Jurançon has all the elements to become the new flagship region for beautiful dry whites 🤩! Indigenous grape varieties such as Mansengs (Petit and Gros), Courbus (Petit and Gros), Camaralet, Lauzet, and even Claverie, which has almost disappeared from the radar… There is also, and above all, a unique terroir, or rather several terroirs… The most well-known being the Poudingue (a mixture of clay, silt, sand, and those famous rolled pebbles descended from the Pyrenees, storing heat during the day and releasing it at night) dominating the surroundings of the famous Chapelle de Rousse, but also gravelly clays in Jurançon. One can find a limestone slab between Gan and Lasseube, and in the Monein sector, there are gravel, clay, and siliceous pebble plateaus… there is also altered flysch where sandstone and marl alternate in Lucq de Béarn!
There's also the climate... It varies between the mountainous harshness in the sectors of Lasseube, Jurançon, Gan, where the vines are closest to the Pyrenees, and an oceanic mild climate, with southern heat in summer found, for example, on the Monein side! Of course, the Foehn is an inseparable component of these beautiful terroirs, our "Vent Balaguèr" (a warm wind from Spain), it brings a gentle warmth before the harvest in September/October. It especially allows the scattered berries of Petit Manseng bunches to dry, concentrating sugars and acidity!
All of this is thanks to a new generation of winemakers who are striving to showcase and perpetuate a work initiated by some of their parents. As lovers of great white wines, we can only be enthusiastic about their determination to prove that Jurançon has nothing to envy other wine regions!
To name just a few (because yes, there are others…), we find Maxime Salharang from Clos Larrouyat in the Gan sector with wines of great purity! Maxime took over his grandfather's land to replant vines about ten years ago. Maxime's first vintage was in 2014, and from the start, he made a name for himself with straightforward and fine wines.
In the Monein sector, we find Domaine Castera, which since the 2014 vintage has seen the return of Franck Lihour, the son, after several years navigating between Burgundy and Corsica. Franck is inspired by what he has seen to establish his single-plot cuvées to better express his Monein terroir, Uchaa more precisely. Tauzy, Caubeigt, but also Memoria (semi-dry on his oldest vines) impose a style, and these three single-plot wines refine vintage after vintage to become essentials in this sector.
Further west, we find Jean-Baptiste Semmartin (Domaine Lajibe). After a first life as a high-level athlete, Jean-Baptiste ventured into viticulture. After studying in Bordeaux and gaining initial experience in the Médoc, he worked for a time for a Banyuls Cooperative Cellar before spending 4 years in Burgundy with Emmanuel Giboulot. During these years, he took the time to refine and analyze his knowledge before returning to the region to become the vineyard manager at Domaine Cauhapé. Starting with the 2015 vintage, Jean-Baptiste acquired old vines with a colleague to vinify his first cuvées. Here too, Jean-Baptiste's approach leads him to isolate each sector to create a single-plot cuvée with very different identities! Domaine Lajibe was officially born with the 2017 vintage and experienced fierce enthusiasm from the start…
Of course, these three winemakers, who are part of Jurançon's new guard, are not alone, but they are undoubtedly the most talked about! Behind them is a host of winemakers, discreet but of quality… We can mention Jean-Pierre Proharam (Domaine Haugarot) and Antonin Valton (Domaine Vignau La Juscle) in Saint Faust, Sébastien Bordenave (Domaine Coustarret) in Lasseube, but also the very dynamic and tireless Irène Guilhendou from Domaine Latapy in Gan, the timeless Henri Lapouble on the hillsides of Jurançon at Chapelle de Rouse (Clos Thou)... and the newcomer, Vincent Maysounave from Haut Berba who teamed up with Fabien Jouves from Cahors and breaks the codes.
This list is just a non-exhaustive sample of these talented winemakers who offer great terroir wines. Across 620 hectares, the appellation counts 65 independent producers. It is an exceptional terroir between the mountains and the ocean. At an altitude of 300m, the vineyard is tiny and stretches for 40km from east to west between the gaves of Oloron and Pau.
