While Jurançon’s vins doux were granted early AOC status in 1936, the Jurançon Sec appellation was only created in 1975 after the Migné family could not produce sweet wine at Clos Joliette in the 1974 vintage. Despite the notoriety of Joliette, after Monsieur Migné’s passing at the end of the 1980s his widow Jeanne failed to turn a profit. Eventually, she sold the estate to a Parisian wine merchant named Michel Renaud, who for the next 25 years kept producing Jurançon with the same artisanal care of the Migné family, but other than selling a few bottles a year to top French restaurants, never publicly released a single vintage.

After Renaud died in 2015, his family hired Jean-Marc Grussaute of Camin Larreyda to manage the fabled 1.8-hectare Clos Joliette and vinify the 2016 and 2017 vintages. Then in 2018, Lionel Osmin was chosen by the family to take over from Grussaute, and (after a long legal battle) eventually purchased the Domaine. Originally from Pau, Osmin was managing the Domaine Barrère (a historic Jurançon estate run by two sisters, who Robert Chadderdon championed, and whose tiny estate includes the two walled sites, Clos de la Vierge, and Clos Cancaillaü).

Since taking over, Osmin has caught the attention of the French press, had Clos Joliette elevated to third-star status in La Revue du Vin de France, and been awarded a perfect 100-point score by Robert Parker’s The Wine Advocate.

~Importer