JEAN BOURDY

TIME STANDS STILL

The Bourdy family has been in the wine-growing/making business since 1475. Their estate is just east and south of Cote D’Or in the Jura region. They grow Chardonnay, Pinot Noir, Trousseau and Poulsard. What matters is this: they make some of the world’s greatest age-worthy wines at the world’s lowest prices.

Many critics compare Bourdy’s red (a blend of pinot noir, trousseau and poulsard) and white (chardonnay) to the great wines from Burgundy (Montrachet, Gevrey and Chambolle are often evoked). And while Bourdy’s wines may be as great (if not more so at times), and often similar to those from Burgundy, it is not Bourdy’s intention to imitate. These wines stand alone in their expression of varietal and place and demand appreciation sans comparison.

The Bourdy Jura Blanc is 100% Chardonnay from high elevation alpine vineyards with a myriad of exposures. Forget Chardonnay and think “place” with this wine. Lemon curd, steel and nuts with great density and sneaky concentration all buoyed by tensile, nervous acidity. From fine herbs to rock and meadow flowers this is a vinous area of alpine intensity. Farmed bio/organic, natural ferments, no enzymes. Ageing record of decades (if not more).

The Bourdy Jura Rouge is a blend of pinot noir, trousseau and poulsard. Also from high elevation alpine vineyards with various exposures. This wine, maybe even more than the blanc (if that’s possible) really takes the drinker to its place of origin. Little red flowers, sweet herbs, perfume, tiny alpine strawberries, soil and stone with weightless extract and refreshing airy quality. Not a “wine of the century” for Bourdy but a beautiful, filigreed example that aims to please rather than impress. Delicious.

Bourdy always keeps back a portion of each vintage – in order to release them later with significant bottle age. They employ an old-school method of offering ‘first tranche’ pricing on the current release then putting the rest in the cellar after 3-6 months where it increases in cost every 12 months thereafter. The current releases from 2008 will only be available at this price once – then they will enter the cellar program. The Rouge and Blanc offered here are the same wines that are available going back to the beginning of the last century (at much higher prices).

Because of the cellar programme, we are also pleased to offer a large selection of wines with significant bottle age. These wines are of impeccable provenance and have never left the Bourdy cellar.

• Chateau Chalon (100% Savignon with flor) back to 1911
• Cotes du Jura Blanc (chardonnay) back to 1888 – same wine as above
• Cotes du Jura Rouge (pinot noir, trousseau, poulsard) back to 1915 – same wine as above
• Vin Jaune back to 1955