Joseph Dorbon 'Vieilles Vignes' 2023 Chardonnay Arbois, Jura

750ml bottle

12.5% abv

Bright citrus and white-flower aromas. A taut, chalky palate shows hints of nutty lees and saline minerality. Lively, elegant, and lightly oxidative, classic Jura tension between freshness and depth.

Aged for 2 years in small barrels that are not topped off, this is a classic example of Chardonnay from the Jura, very clean with a citrus-leaning nose. It is not especially nutty or wild and shows only a subtle influence of the voile--with only 2 years of aging, there not enough time for the veil to fully develop. The fruit is impressively compact, and the nose has a slightly bitter orange-peel note and flavors of white flowers and aromatic herbs. This wine leans medicinal and has the expressiveness of an artisanal vermouth. It is a truly pleasurable wine to drink now or lay down for a few years.

Joseph Dorbon commenced his work as vigneron in 1996. He works three hectares of vineyards situated in his village of Vadans, six kilometers north of Arbois and across the Route Nationale from the fabled town of Montigny-les-Arsures. The vines are hillside plantings, southeast facing, at approximately 1,000 feet of altitude (322 meters). Dorbon works his vineyards following the best ecological practices and is now on the path to organic classification ("en conversion biologique"). He turns the soil just twice a year, the second time in June with the aid of a horse. Between ploughings, vegetation is largely left to grow between the vineyard rows with the weeding done only underneath and immediately around individual vines.

The vineyards are planted to a mix of Trousseau, Ploussard and Pinot Noir for the reds (30%) and Chardonnay and Savagnin (70% for the whites). All grapes are hand harvested.

The reds are each vinified separately after being destemmed. The alcoholic fermentation and cuvaison lasts for about 15 days. Both the Ploussard and Trousseau are aged for one year in stainless steel while the Pinot Noir rests in 225 liter oak barrels for an eighteen-month period.

The whites are all pressed as grappes entieres. The Chardonnay is fermented in 225 liter barrels and is left in the barrel to age for twenty-four months before bottling. During the elevage, the white wine is never racked and the wines are raised sous voile. The still white wines are the product of grapes harvested exclusively from old vines that are at least 40 years of age.

--

Joseph Dorbon’s setup is simple: three hectares of organically tended vines on prime south-facing slopes above his home village of Vadans; a horse to help him plow; and a subterranean 16^th-century cellar in which his effortlessly soulful wines slowly take shape. We met Joseph through Michel Gahier, and indeed the two men share a certain combination of dyed-in-the-wool Jurassien spirit and boundary-pushing thoughtfulness.

Vadans, a sleepy little village even for the Jura, contains soils of yellow marl, which tend to produce reds of great finesse and whites of chiseled complexity, and Dorbon’s wines follow suit; yet, like the greatest wines in the region, they are both deeply evocative of place and distinctly Joseph’s own. He works his land without chemicals, plows by horse—a difficult and little-encountered practice which he learned from his uncle—and harvests by hand. 

His minimalist cellar practices are steeped in Jura tradition: spontaneous fermentations without temperature regulation; aging sous-voile for his white wines; minuscule (and sometimes no) additions of sulfur; and bottling of the white wines only after significant time in cask. Joseph’s evocative wines have garnered deserved attention since we first began our partnership ten years ago, and although he is now fully retired—with his talented nephew Pierre Laporte helming the domaine—we still have a few Joseph-made vintages to look forward to…