Dagueneau’s dry Jurançon is a stunning, and hyper-rare wine from France’s southwest. Without being disrespectful to the region and its finest growers, this example is on another planet when it comes to quality. It is totally unique.
Unlike the moelleux wine, this is made from all five of Jurançon’s permitted white grape varieties: Petit Manseng and Gros Manseng, as well as the strictly local (and seldom grown) Courbu, Lauzet, and Camarelet. The rarest of these Jurançon varieties, Camarelet, dominates the blend. The winemaking mirrors that of the Loire wine: Dagueneau and Pautrat use both stainless steel and ‘cigar’ barrels for the maturation, before putting the final blend together.
Vagaries of vintage aside, the wine is always stunning: complex, enigmatic and totally unconventional (for the region) with Dagueneauesque transparency, precision and coolness, yet also that tender core of pulpy fruit and a driven, mineral finish. As these wines have some age you can expect some subtle secondary notes as well (think beeswax).