Domaine des Cavarodes Meandres 2018
'From Etienne we have a cuvée called Méandres, from the 2018 vintage, with a beautiful label (above) depicting the “guêpier d’europe” (in English the European bee-eater) which nests in the banks of the river below his vineyards.
Méandres is the word “meander” in English. It is a very deliberate choice, reflecting the complex route this wine took to reach fruition and also the sinuous path of the Loue river which skirts the village of Cramans.
The wine is what would otherwise have been the 2018 Chardonnay Lumachelles but has been declassified. Like many white wines from the 2018 vintage fermentation was long and difficult.
To finish it, Etienne macerated it with the grapes from the 2020 vintage of the same wine. This process enables the wine to ferment until dry. As usual, the aging was in 45 hl foudres. Etienne has waited a long time for this to be ready to release and we were lucky enough to be shipping some wine at the time it and the labels were ready so we received an unexpected allocation which, as well as boosting the total number of bottles helped to reduce the freight cost per bottle for all of the wines.
The wine, with its extended aging in older foudre has a Jura oxidative quality but is still fresh and lifted with savoury notes that make it a wonderful wine with food. Because it has been declassified its price is slightly more bearable as well.'
- Living Wines
