Tasted in Javernand with Arthur Fourneau & Pierre Prost, 27 February 2024.

Domaine Château de Javernand
421 Impasse de Javernand
69115 Chiroubles
Tel: +33 9 63 29 82 13
Domaine Instagram
www.javernand.com
More reports with the Château de Javernand

Arthur on 2022 & 2023:
“Yes the hills did well in 2023 – we had a small episode of hail but there were plenty of grapes on the vines so we recovered. And 2022? Well, we don’t know what is a normal vintage here yet! After 2020 and 2021, and we are restructuring our vineyards – also some are organic, some not yet, changing the training – so… We can say that we had less than in 2023 and more than in 2021 after the frost. We did suffer from the dryness in 2022 – we can see that. From 2024 we are working 100% organic – all the parcels – and conversion is underway. We have some chickens and sheep that help with the work in some places. The market is okay right now – we make less wine than was once the case here so we don’t have problems to sell!”

The wines…

A beautiful location with very tasty wines! I surprised myself by absolutely loving their Pet Nat!

The 22s are samples but will be bottled in the coming couple of weeks:

2021(!) Chiroubles Les Gatilles
Gatilles – the local green lizards that bask in the sun in front of the château. This is the historic cuvée of the domaine – ‘a representative blend of the domaine’s parcels.’ They made fewer cuvées after the frost of 21… They are allowed to ‘play’ with up to 15% of different vintages blended – to a maximum of 15% this contains about 5% 2022
Airy, some floral high tones. This has nice easy shape in the mouth – supple – the faintest of tannin and none of the gentian of the vintage – a friendly wine. Slowly fading in the finish…

2022 Chiroubles Indigène
“This is our Chiroubles made with our first wave of organic vines, made with the minimum of sulfur – so long as the tank doesn’t need any sulfur we won’t add any. Assembled and not filtered. The same for bottling – sulfur if needed but not necessarily.”
Deeper colour. A round but clean nose. Round in the mouth too – large in scale but a mouth-watering, fragrant and fluid flavour here – I find it excellent – the finish so broad and inviting you to take another sip !!

2022 Chiroubles Vieilles-Vignes
From multiple parcels – two tanks of wine, one tank with whole clusters and semi-carbonic, the other destemmed, possibly with a slightly longer maceration then cement tank elevage before assembled.
A more direct freshness. Supple, with a modest softness to the texture – concentrated and broadening impressively in the finishing flavours. Long too, almost a small dark chocolate and licorice complexity in the last flavours. That’s a very tasty wine !!

2020 Chiroubles Climax
A Cuvée since 2017 – ‘our aim to make a ‘great’ Beaujolais.’ This is a selection of different presses and extra maceration from one parcel where they started their tests for organics before the official certification began. Elevage in barrel for 12 months – 1,500 bottles
Really fine aromatic presence – rounder, with a fine, granular, complexity. Supple, velvet textured, there’s an ease to this flavour – the barrel visible but still on the subtle side. The finish broad, showcasing a small warmth of red fruit. Delicious wine!

2022 Mâcon Pinot Noir
Have 2 ha of white one ha of which is old vine, and 0.6 ha of pinot – since 2018, all worked organically – this wine certified AB and the white since 2019. In 22 it was harvested by hand, in 2023 by machine. Destemmed and with older barrels for elevage. ‘Good pinot for a decent price is rare so we find this quite easy to sell – in fact professionally you have to buy 2 bottles of Chiroubles to every one of this!’
Plenty of colour. Here is both volume and freshness of aroma. Nicely mouth-filling, the flavours framed with a small grain of tannin – but hardly drying. And finishing with some nice dimensions of flavour – were faint bitters adding complexity. Another very tasty wine.

And Les Whites:

2022 Mâcon-Villages
An assembly of vines in Serières – near Pierreclos – Organic since 2022. Tank elevage. We don’t have much limestone here.
A good depth to this nose with modest, sweeter, higher tones. Nice scale – cool but still ripe fruit. A modest rigour to the flavours in the middle but slowly fading with sweet ripe citrus. Good!

2022 Bourgogne Chardonnay
Organic. Old vines with barrel elevage. 12 months elevage with a maximum of 10% new barrels.
Extra width and a more inviting freshness of aroma. Much more direct and cool – the barrel visible from the middle flavours and getting stronger as you head into the finish. Because of the barrel, I’d wait 2-3 years before drinking but I like the more direct shape and tastier cool fruit.