Francois Rousset-Martin Chardonnay La Chaux 2019

rançois Rousset-Martin is one of the Jura's most compelling producers — a grower who grew up in Burgundy, where his father worked as a microbiologist for the Hospices de Beaune, before falling in love with a parcel of family vines in the dramatic Vallée des Reculées and returning in 2007 to launch his own winery in the tiny village of Nevy-sur-Seille. His raison d'être is to better know and understand the incredible terroirs in which he is invested — his most focused work producing previously inconceivable wines within the Château-Chalon appellation, labelled as Côtes du Jura since he makes them in a non-oxidative, topped-up style. Vinified by climat with little to no sulphur, bottled unfined and unfiltered, straight from the barrel by hand. La Chaux is his Chardonnay from the marl slopes around Château-Chalon — sourced from 65-year-old vines, aged in barrel with regular topping-up to preserve freshness, producing a complex and savoury white that is neither Burgundian nor oxidative but something the Jura alone can produce. 

There is nothing Burgundian about this Chardonnay: aromas of fleshy pineapple and salted butter let you know immediately where you are — the interplay of laser focus with a deep exoticism could only come from the Jura, and not just anyone's cellar. An exotic nose of candied lemon and spices, focused acidity and a sensation of beeswax and nuts on the palate, with a lengthy saline finish. It shows unusual tension, tight and dry, with very tasty flavours that provoke thought — a wine of genuine originality that refuses easy categorisation and rewards those who come to it without preconceptions about what Chardonnay is supposed to taste like.