2019 Domaine Cauhape Jurancon Sec "La Canopée" 750 ml

It’s true: There’s nothing else like Jurançon—one of France’s most distinctive white wines—and nobody does Jurançon better than Domaine Cauhapé. 

Cauhapé is to Jurançon what Coche-Dury is to Meursault, what Soldera is to Brunello: simply the ne plus ultra. Owner-winemaker Henri Ramonteu’s meticulous and spiritual approach has led to Cauhapé’s Jurançon Sec La Canopée being chosen as an aperitif for G7 attendees in Biarritz and poured by the glass at MICHELIN three-stars like Pierre Gagnaire in Paris and Georges Blanc in Bourg-en-Bresse.

Henri Ramonteu is a winemaker of legend. In his excellent book The New France, Andrew Jefford wrote “In the intelligent perfectionist Henri Ramonteu, France has one of its greatest winemakers,” awarding Domaine Cauhapé three stars—his highest rating. Curiously, producers like Château Rayas in Châteauneuf-du-Pape and Domaine Raveneau in Chablis only received two stars.

The 2019 Domaine Cauhapé Jurançon Sec La Canopée is made from the fruit of Petit Manseng vines 30 years or more of age, picked at the same time as grapes for sweet wines but vinified dry. Jefford marveled at Ramonteu’s ability to craft a Petit Manseng “with its extraordinary sugar-acid balance creating not so much architecture as a magnetic field,” and it’s easy to see what he means. The wine hangs together in perfect harmony, with creamy, gushing acidity and notes of grapefruit pith and Key lime pie. It has a fantastically long, lingering finish of coconuts, tropical fruit, citrus, and flowers.

There are very few French regions where you can capture the very best from a one-of-a-kind, A-level producer for an astonishingly low price.