Charlot

Charlot is what the French call Chaplin's little tramp. On the label, a white-bearded figure in a bowler hat leans on a cane beside a giant cog. L'Octavin makes it in Arbois, but not from Jura grapes. Alongside her own vines, Alice Bouvot runs a négoce that buys fruit from other regions, often from the same growers year after year, as the Ukrainian shop Goodwine describes it.

The recipe moves with the vintage. The US merchant Primal Wine lists the 2022 as Merlot with Molette and Muscat, the Molette being the grape of her Clé à molette. Primal describes a 30-day whole-bunch maceration in tank, bottled without added sulphur.

For the 2023, the US merchant Winona Wine gives 45% Syrah, 40% Merlot and 15% Carignan. The Merlot came from Jean-Benoît Plagnol at Les Salelles in the Ardèche, the Syrah and Carignan from Claude Ughetto at Saint-Pierre-de-Vassols in the Vaucluse. The Merlot spent ten days on whole bunches and the Syrah eight, while the Carignan went straight to the press. Each was handled on its own until pressing, then blended, raised in tank and bottled in November 2023.

Sabotage, which sells the 2023 in Ukraine, gives the same shares, and both it and Goodwine name Cinsault where Winona has Carignan, while repeating the domaine's general line about vines around Arbois.

The bowler and cane stay on the label; what is in the bottle changes with the year.