Chateau Jouvente, Bordeaux, France...
If you move from Bordeaux to the south, then forty kilometers from Bordeaux you can find Château Jouvente. The owners of the Château Jouvente, son and father became real winemakers recently, but their achievements are impressive...
INSTEAD OF EPIGRAPH
"As lovers of wine, we wanted to build a family company around three important factors: land, life and the development of a fine product. We fell in love with the Château Jouvente for the quality of its wines coupled with the technical team’s expertise. In June 2016, our dream of owning it became a reality.
The Château Jouvente lies in the heart of Illats, a town within the Graves appellation. The vineyard produces red wines of extraordinary character, elegance and fruitiness, as well as dry white wines that are fresh, aromatic and complex. Our wine variety is both typical and representative of the quality of wines produced in this beautiful region.
At the estate, you will see for yourself the level of passion and precision that go into this work. The two types of soil – clay/gravel and sand/gravel – are treated with sustainable agriculture methods. The core of the work is thus carried out by hand. Each Château Jouvente vintage exudes the elegance that characterises a great Graves wine.
The Château Jouvente team welcomes visitors interested in discovering its latest and old vintages on any day of the week. Tours are organised by Olivier, our technical officer, or Nathalie, our Graves wine specialist and are aimed at passing on knowledge. Each tour begins with a visit of the vineyard, the storehouse and the cellar and ends in a wine-tasting session of the estate’s produce as well as the Château Roumieu Sauternes wine belonging to Olivier".
David and Benjamin Gutmann
The questions of "Yellow Road" answers Benjamin Gutmann, co-owner of the Château Jouvente
1 - Any beautiful story has its beautiful beginning ... Your family in 2016 buys a Chateau Jouvente in the Bordeaux region, near Sauterns ... Why did the choice fell on this chateau?
My father wanted a place which would be a place for family gathering and for production. My father is a real amateur of wine and, once, we got the opportunity to visit some vineyards. The objective was to see if it was possible to buy a vineyard, even if I couldn't believe in this project. We had to spend few days in Bordeaux and Château Jouvente was the first vineyard to visit. We had a crush and we came back to Paris. It was in May 2015, Jouvente became us in June 2016. Why we did have this crush : beautiful and recent tool of production, high quality of wine, technical personnel who wanted to stay with us, nice house. Even if I couldn't imagine I would become a winemarker a day, it became suddenly natural... I started again my studies.
2 - Did the quality of the white wines of this chateau affect your decision?
(le Blanc 2015 de Château Jouvente a été médaille d’or du Concours général de Paris. Le Rouge 2014 et le Blanc 2015 Château Jouvente ont été lauréats du Trophée des Grands Crus des Graves.)
Very good question ! And the answer is yes. We had specially a crush for the white wine (15 to 20 % of the production), around only 8.000 bottles. We tasted the white wine 2014 : it was full of fruitness, with a good length in the mouth and the possibilité to recognize the different wine varieties we use (Sauvignon, Semillon and Muscadelle). When we had the first tasting, the owner put the red wines in the fridge. It was really difficult to judge them because they were too cold/
3 - I learned about your achievements from an article in le Parisien, but there is not enough information about these wines. Please tell us a little more about these awards.
Le Trophée des Grands Crus de Graves is, according to us, the most important award even if the recognition of this award is very low. Indeed it is the inner competition in Graves Appellation and the firsts phase of selection is realized by the winemakers of Graves themselves. That means that our wines is high quality and has a great typicity !
4 - Is your previous profession related to winemaking?
Absolutly not. I was working in the French Administration in International Relations. Anyway it learnt me how to build strategy and tactics.
5 - Now, a couple of years after you became a professional, can you already distinguish outstanding wine from the average?
Yes, the most important thing is the balance between the different wine varieties that are used, the length in the mouth, the fruitness and the flowerness, which means the maturity of the grapes during harvest. The wine is well-balanced between acidity and sweetness.
6 - Where can I try your white wines? (countries, restaurants, etc.)
You can taste it mainly in France, but also in Asia (Hong-Kong, China and Taiwan). We chose to work directly with our clients. So I love to work and to meet great Chefs in restaurants (gastronomic and starred restaurants), and in wine-cellars.
7 - In the photos we can see how your castle looks from the outside. What does he look like inside?
It is a typical house of the 19th century. I send few pictures of our veranda.
8 - List, if possible, a set (gift box) of three or four of your own wines (red and white), which, in your opinion, may be worthy of the presentation of your farm.
Red 2012, White 2016 and Red 2016. Those wines have a great typicity of Graves wines : elegant, fruitful, slightly with some touch of flowers and with character (fine structure, length in the mouse). The other wine I would advise you is Cuvée Solal 2016. The malo-lactic fermentation was done directly in oak barrels. The wine has suppleness, is very fuity and complex. The blend is : 50% merlot, 30% Cabernet Sauvignon, 20% Petit Verdot.
9 - You can offer the most beautiful view (favorite point) of the vineyards or the surrounding landscape. May I ask you to take one or two photos of your favorite places?
OK
10 - What is your choice for "Yellow Road"?
Blanc 2015 and 2016 have great structure but it remains only 240 bottles of each. Blanc 2017 is more lightful because of the vintage (we got frost at the end of april and then the weather in september was humid...) but keeps a lot of freshness and fruitness (lemon, mandarine, peach).
11 - If it's not a secret, tell us about your plans for the future
We want to develop our exports and to develop our presence in gastronomic and starred restaurants. Indeed we would like to go on working with Chiefs and to know better their work. For the estate by itself we want to enhance our artistic and cultural program.
12 - What white wine producer (from France or another country) would you recommend for Yellow Road?
For sweet wine : Château Roumieu, in Barsac, owned by Olivier Bernadet.
13 - What cultural event would you like to see at home: an exhibition, an opera, a ballet, something else or just your own events?
exhibitions mainly on bodies. We welcome Caroline Desnoëttes paintings between October 2018 and April 2019.
cultural events gathering people of the village : writing workshop, slam, poetry.
concert : senegalese concert on the 5th of July, etc.
Furturmore we have a tasting place in Paris where we start to organize tastings, cultural events and exhibitions. For example we welcome Marie Casays last December and beginning of June we welcome Louise Mezel.
Last but not least, we ask to some artist to create our new labels : Marie Casays offered us a drawing for our second wine La Source de Château Jouvente, inspired by a painting named La Source from Dominique Ingres. Caroline Desnoëttes offered one of her more well-knowm painting : the head of a Panthere for our cuvée. This cuvée is only made when a baby from the new generation is born (5% of the red production). Solal in 2016, Noam in 2018 (integral vinification) and Elias 2019.
Sergey Evtuhov, author of the project "Yellow Road".
