Jurancon
Jurançon Wine - Buy Wine from the Jurançon Region of France
Lying in the foothills of the Pyrenees on the southern bank of the Gave de Pau, the Béarnais appellation of Jurançon represents some of France’s oldest wine producing country. Jurançon has been celebrated since the Middle Ages, when the infant Henry IV was anointed with the local wine at his baptism in 1553, but it was hit hard by the ravages of phylloxera in the late 19th century that almost wiped it out. Fortunately a handful of dogged independent growers and a progressive
cave co-opérative kept the flame alive in the lean post-war years and today Jurançon is once again enjoying an international reputation for its highly distinctive wines. The principal grape variety here is Manseng that is cultivated in two strains called ‘Gros’ and ‘Petit’, according to the size of the grapes. Gros and Petit Manseng are commonly blended together but, unsurprisingly, the higher yielding Gros Manseng tends to predominate in Jurançon Sec – the region’s dry white wine.
Pascal Labasse is a bluff and hearty former
co-opérateur (and centre three-quarter for Monein) who struck out on his own in 1986 and hasn’t looked back, garnering a hard-earned reputation for producing wines of great character, finesse and longevity. Today Pascal farms 14 hectares of vines at Domaine Bellegarde that are not treated with herbicides or pesticides and are under conversion to organic status.
White Wine