Jean-Francois Ganevat Cuvée Marguerite 2015 Magnum

Ganevat never bottles Marguerite in 75 cl: the importer's sheet for the 2016 gives 10 hl/ha and 500 bottles, which is the whole reason for the magnum.

Cuvée Marguerite is Chardonnay, but of a particular kind. Raffine, the domaine's importer in Japan, describes the vines as Melon à Queue Rouge, an old low-yielding Jura selection of Chardonnay now disappearing from the region, planted around 1900 on grey marl; Maruyamaya and Sakemorita, both quoting the importer for the 2015 magnum, put the planting at 1902. Wineholic's listing for a later vintage places the plot at Les Chalasses in Vercia, the same grey-marl site that gives the domaine's Chalasses Vieilles Vignes, whose vines Raffine also dates to 1902 and which Wineholic calls the last wine bottled each year. The importer's reason for the magnum-only release is plain: there is too little wine to do anything else.

Raffine's sheet for the 2016 shows how the cuvée is made: whole bunches, native-yeast fermentation, then three years on the lees in used 600-litre barrels with no intervention, no fining, no filtration and no added sulphur dioxide, bottled in December 2019 at 14.0% with 500 bottles made. The 2019 listing at Wineholic stretches the lees ageing to four years in large casks and 500 to 600-litre barrels, with 105 bottles released. We have found no sheet for the 2015 itself, so those numbers describe neighbouring vintages; Maruyamaya lists our 2015 magnum with the same vines, the same soil and the same magnum-only rule.

The Ganevat family has been at Rotalier since 1650 and kept cows for Comté alongside the vines until 1976. Jean-François, the fourteenth generation, worked at Jean-Marc Morey in Chassagne-Montrachet before taking over in 1998 and converting the vineyards to biodynamics that year; the importer's 2021 sheet gives 8.5 hectares, 3.5 of them white, and about 35,000 bottles, with every white put through malolactic and no sulphur during vinification.

In the glass

The importer's note, repeated by Maruyamaya and Sakemorita for the 2015 magnum, calls Marguerite the richest and juiciest of the domaine's whites, with overwhelming concentration and an exotic set of aromas. Wineholic's text on the neighbouring Chalasses Vieilles Vignes describes a powerful white built for long ageing, bottled last of all the cuvées. No critic note for the 2015 has been found; the description above is the importer's, not ours.

When to open

No producer window exists, so this is our suggestion: a lees-aged white at around 14% in magnum will be slow to open, so decant an hour ahead, serve at 12 to 14°C, and keep further bottles for the next decade.

At the table

Our suggestion: roast guinea fowl with chanterelles, or a 24-month Comté from the Jura.

Quick facts

Provenance

Sourced from the Japanese importer.

Sources: Raffine (Japanese importer); Maruyamaya; Sakemorita; Miyatake Saketen; Wineholic