Dorabella, Domaine de l'Octavin 2018

Despite having trained in Bordeaux and Burgundy, Alice Bouvot knew that when it came to start her own domaine, the Jura would be the place. In 2004 she started from scratch, buying a small cellar in the village of Arbois and a couple of hectares of vines in the hills surrounding.  Alice now farms around five hectares of Chardonnay, Savagnin, Poulsard, Trousseau and Pinot Noir, with holdings in some of the region’s very best lieu-dits such as En Curon, La Mailloche, Les Nouvelles and Les Corvées.

Vineyard work is done by hand and is both fanatical and fantastic, with biodynamic farming used to great effect in retaining a real biodiversity in the vineyard. These are some of the most beautiful parcels we have seen.  After a number of lean vintages, Alice had to look further afield to make ends meet and now harvests grapes at trusted friend’s properties all over France, making an equally exciting range of negotiant wines.

From 50 year old vines of Poulsard planted in La Mailloche and En Curon, the fruit was de-stemmed by hand and spent two months on its skins with no pigeage. This year’s effort is the most structured we have tried, with neat tannins and deeper flavours of exotic spice. A timely reminder of why we fell in love with the grape in the first place.

Producer Domaine de l'Octavin

Origin Arbois, Jura, France

Grapes Poulsard

Vintage 2018

Alcohol 11.5% ABV

Style Fragrant light body red

Bottle size 750ml 

Winemaking Manual harvested, destemmed, macerated for 2 months, fermented with indigenous yeast, aged for 12 months in old Burgundy barrels. Unfiltred and unfined. No added sulphites.

Notes Natural, Organic, Biodynamic