Color / Grapes
Red/Syrah
Region
Beaujolais
Appellation
IGP Comtés Rhodaniens
Features
Planted in 2015 as a confidential agronomic experiment, our now "adolescent" Syrah is beginning to produce beautiful, dense fruit that gains in complexity each year. It is farmed organicaly as the surrounding gamay vines of the domaine. Global warming and the similarities of our volcanic pink granite soils, with those of the northern Rhône Valley (Côte-Rôtie, Cornas, Saint Joseph, etc.) led us to take this bet. One hectare of vines have been planted on two of our best terroirs (Rochegrès, at the top of the appellation, and Vieremanin, mid-slope, below La Roche). The Syrah, highly resistant to drought, thrives gracefully on these sunny slopes. Due to its thicker skin, Syrah takes more time to ripen than Gamay, they are the last plots harvested, usually by every member of Château des Jacque's team, leading to a joyful end-of-harvest celebration.
Vinification
Picked and sorted by hand, the grapes are destemmed, starting their fermentation naturaly, the grapes then macerate slowly over the course of three or four weeks. Both pigeage and pumping over take place at different stages of the fermentation according to the vintage profile.
Winemaking and bottling
The Syrah is then aged in a concrete egg (1/3 of the wine) and in 228L french oak barrels (2/3) of wich about 1/3 are new.
Tasting / Food pairing
This deep but velvety wine with violet, rosemary and peppery aromas will perfectly match all sorts of dishes with great personality. Tapenade and olive appetizers, charcuterie and soft goat cheese boards, but also grilled fish with cherry-tomatoes and provence-herbs, grilled halloumi, roasted lamb with mint sauce, pulled pork or meat skewers.
Preservation
Syrah is still an experiment for us, but the first havested vintage (2018) is showing beatifully now in 2025. We believe that the increasing depth and concentration of this wine, planted on our best plots, combined with an ageing for 2/3 in oak barrels, will help developping good ageing potential.
Vintage
"At last a freezing winter that will give a good rest to our vines" were we thinking in January 2024 watching the snow falling onto the windmill. Hallas, mild temperatures appeared right at the beginning of February, getting the vegetative cycle started very early on. First buds were out by the end of March. April and May broke all temperature records (35°!) and water was scarce. Flowers spread their scents at the end of May. Thankfully, at last, June brought a few rains helping the grapes to develop. But these days, the price to pay for a bit of water is high. On the 24th and 25th of June some plots of Corcelette in Morgon, and Fleurie, were hit by hail. July displayed high temperatures and sunshine, and, for the first time ever, we saw grapes changing colours on the first week of July. August was dry, hot, with no cloud on the horizon. We started the harvest on Grand Carquelin plot in Moulin-à-Vent on the 19th of August. Like 2020, the vintage 2022 released shows incredibly no signs of the turmoil and heat-waves of the year, and together with colour and intensity, the wines are fresh and elegant.