Michel Gahier 'La Vigne du Louis' 2024 Trousseau Noir Arbois

750ml bottle

13.5% abv

Deep purple in hue. Aromas of red fruit, leather, and pepper. The earthy, cherry palate is fresh, supple, and structured by silky tannins.

This vineyard in Montigny has a northeast exposure, which requires a harvest later than the other “cru” reds. The vines, planted in the 1970s, have a warmer exposition than “Le Clousot” above. “La Vigne du Louis” offers greater fruit density and more notable tannins, revealing a substantial layer of savory funk beneath its core of mentholated cherries and pepper. Gahier likes this cuvée with about four or five years of age to it. 

Cultivated organically, though not certified, for many years, the grapes are hand-harvested, destemmed, and then cold-macerated before a fermentation lasting approximately one month. Punching down is performed to encourage extraction. Aged in large oak casks and barrels, the wine is bottled without prior filtration.

The Gahier family has been resident in the Jura since 1525. The family domaine is 6.5 hectares with the vineyards concentrated in the village of Montigny-les-Arsures, the place recognized as the home of Trousseau. Michel Gahier has learned from the best, as neighbor and friend of Jacques Puffeney. His observations and ongoing dialogue with Puffeney have instilled skills and sensibility that produce undeniably outstanding wines that clearly express the very particular terroir of this corner of the Jura.

Gahier harvests and vinifies his wines parcel by parcel. Each wine ultimately is derived exclusively from a single vineyard site. His whites are produced both ouillé (topped-up) and sous voile (left to form a protective veil of yeast), though all have a minerality that distinguishes them as jurassien. The Vin Jaune is a testament to the old traditions of the Jura, and many of Gahier’s Vin Jaune barrels are a century old, acquired from Jacques Puffeney’s cellar after his retirement. The same “yeast mother” living in these barrels that nurtured Puffeney’s wine for so many years is now safely ensconced at chez Gahier.

Gahier’s home base of Montigny-lès-Arsures is known charmingly as “The Capital of Trousseau,” and may well produce the most thrilling, layered, and dynamic renderings of the grape variety in the entire Arbois appellation. Gahier’s viticulture is organic; the reds are destemmed; the yields are quite low (averaging 30 hectoliters per hectare). There is a period of cold maceration followed by a cuvaison of approximately one month with some pigeage done in the initial parts of the process. The wines, both white and red, are bottled without filtration.