2018 Grand Curoulet Chardonnay Arbois Jura Domaine du Pelican

The 2018 Arbois Chardonnay Grand Curolet is a wine of breadth and texture. Lemon confit, almond, sage and dried flowers fill out the wine’s frame effortlessly, but it is the wine’s balance that is so compelling. The 2018 manages to convey so much intensity and yet it remains translucent and light on its feet, remarkable for such an unctuous wine. The Chardonnay is a wine of tremendous intrigue. I hope to be able to taste it again in another few years’ time.

The bottled 2018 Arbois Chardonnay Grand Courolet comes from a plot that used to belong to Robert Aviet. The wine has a spicy nose with balsamic notes of aromatic herbs, medicinal and toasty, quite showy, like it might have had the effect of some yeasts, as it sometimes makes me feel like there are some notes reminiscent of a Vin Jaune. It's a bit peaty and smoky, round and ripe and with integrated acidity.