All wines
Domaine de la Tournelle
R VO Fleur de Savagnin
2018
4.2
Region
France › Jura › Arbois › Arbois AOC
Type
white · still
Grapes
Savagnin
Alcohol
13%
Volume
750 mL
Tasting Notes(1)
4.2
Wormwood and raw hazelnuts, valerian (or Barboval if you're Ukrainian and know that medicinal hit), sesame seeds. Then popcorn, vanilla, apricot and mango pile in. The acidity is brilliant, minerality like licking wet stones fresh from the sea. Citrus and white flowers try to keep things elegant while exotic spices and a touch of cheese funk remind you this is Savagnin, not some polite Chablis. The earthiness grounds everything beautifully. This is ouillé Savagnin at its best - all the grape's intensity without oxidation's heavy hand. La Tournelle showing how biodynamics can amplify terroir without getting all mystical about it.
About
Cuvée R is the domaine's small reserve programme: at bottling, Domaine de la Tournelle sets aside a small portion of each cuvée in the cellar as a hedge against frost or hail losses, which later release with several extra years of cellar age. Front label reads "Cuvée R"; back label identifies the underlying wine - here, Fleur de Savagnin. The wine is the same as the standard Fleur de Savagnin (100% Savagnin, grey marl, whole-cluster pneumatic press, indigenous yeasts, AF tank-to-228L old barrels, ouillé on fine lees for at least eighteen months, no SO2) - just given more time before release. Note: the back label's "VO" notation isn't a published Tournelle designation; the wine is ouillé, not sous voile. 13% ABV. 2018 was a warm, generous, high-volume year in the Jura.
