Anne et Jean-Francois Ganevat Pinot Noir La Colline des Dames 2023

La Colline des Dames is one of the more delightful surprises in the Ganevat négoce range — a 100% Pinot Noir that steps outside the Jura altogether, sourced from organically farmed vines on the Frauenberg terroir in Alsace (the name itself is a loose French rendering of the German "Frauenberg," or "women's hill"). Jean-François and Anne apply the same instincts here as they do to their own Jura fruit: hand-harvested, whole-cluster grapes go into a cool, semi-carbonic maceration around 12–14°C in large old foudres, fermented spontaneously on indigenous yeasts, and aged for around nine months to a year in wood that's long since given up any real oak influence. The wine is bottled without fining, filtration, or added sulphur, letting the fruit itself do all the talking.

And talk it does — loudly and joyfully. This is a wine that bursts out of the glass like a basket of fresh fruit: cherry, wild raspberry, grenadine, and a note of bitter orange, sometimes joined by darker blackberry, a touch of aniseed, and a whisper of cinnamon or smoke depending on the vintage. The palate is medium-bodied, elongated, and irresistibly juicy, with a light natural spritz on opening and barely-there tannins that make it dangerously easy to drink. Give it a slight chill and pour it with herb-roasted chicken, tempura, or a wedge of Saint-Nectaire — this is Ganevat at his most playful, and proof that his magic touch with Pinot Noir travels just as well outside the Jura as it does at home.