When the Migne family planted 1.8 hectares of Petit Manseng in 1929, the history of this tiny plot of land began. The terroir is made up of rolling stones on clay, silica, limestone, and poudinque soil. In the subsurface, there is an iron vein.
In the commune of the same name, Jurançon, there is only one vineyard, Clos Joliette. Although it is enveloped by a sense of mystery, it is distinct from the appellation’s life. The wines produced by this amphitheatre of steep, southeast-facing terraces, protected from the westerly wind, have been the subject of a subterranean mythology of the Béarn region that has spread well beyond the Pyrenees for nearly a century.
According to rumours, Gérard Depardieu attempted to purchase the estate in the 1980s, and Bertrand de Lur Saluces believed that the Clos Joliette wine was the only one that could be compared to Chateau d’Yquem.
Clos Joliette | Chemin Joliette | 64110 JURANÇON
+33 (0)5 59 05 14 66 | Mail : sudouest@osmin.fr
The Migné era ended in 1989 when the estate, which was in severe ruin at the time, was purchased by Michel Renaud, a wine dealer from Paris. A challenging succession process started in 2015 with the death of Michel Renaud. Before Palais wine dealer Lionel Osmin took over the stock and viticultural management, two vintages (2016 and 2017) were vinified by the A Bisto de Nas group and renowned local winemaker Jean-Marc Grussaute. These recent upheavals have added to the estate’s distinctive history and its enigmatic, hidden personality.
Evidently unconcerned
Michel Renaud valued the unique terroir just as much as the wine’s heritage. With great pleasure, he evoked Madame Migné, or Jeanne as he called her, and he tried to follow her method down to the last detail. Despite the wine’s departure from the Jurançon appellation, the mouthwatering label has remained constant.
Is it possible to find a wine that is more traditional and far from contemporary winemaking methods? The bunches of Petit Manseng, which are tiny berries with a range of ripeness from golden to botrytised (rare in Jurançon) to passerillé, were taken from the harvesting bucket to a steel skip and then to an old boxwood crusher. The juice was then poured into a saucepan or decanter after the century-old vertical press finished. Then, right away, it was transported twenty meters further into the clay cellar and poured into old barrels (all from Chateau de Fargues). What came next? After finding its equilibrium, the completed wine will stay in the same barrel for five, six, or seven years before being bottled. Fermentation will occur extremely slowly, without sulphiting or temperature control. Weekly topping up is the only strict requirement placed on this seemingly unrestrained strategy.
The sparkling acidity electrifies
The wine was always quite rich, but it could be dry, semi-dry, sweet, or even syrupy, depending on the year and the barrels (usually fewer than a dozen) that were not blended. These wines, which are both classic and superior to the Petit Manseng of Jurançon, are remarkable for their intensity of taste, their constantly shifting complexity, and their longevity. However, the wine aficionado was uneasy due to the bottles’ unpredictability, which was made worse by glaring issues with accommodations at times.
During the Migné era, 1970 was a particularly prosperous and reliable vintage. It costs 215 euros dry and 221 euros sweet right now, and the_corkreporter has tried it both dry and sweet numerous times. Burnt topaz accents accentuate the amber colour of the moelleux, which is dark but bright. A flurry of spices and leather, with a touch of apricot jam, and most importantly, a strong scent of black truffle, which is one of the wine’s main aromatic traits. The power is still there, the length is enormous, and the sugar is flawlessly incorporated. Sparkling acidity electrifies the seemingly endless sapidity. This successful but brutally young wine embodies the Joliette unicum myth.
Green Guide 2025
Just 1.5 hectares make up Joliette, the renowned Jurançon vineyard nearest to the Château de Pau. It is a south-facing amphitheatre terraced below and on the slope above, with Petit Manseng selections planted. The end product is a wine that has endured through the ages, flamboyant, emotional, intense, and erratic. The soil’s characteristics—clay on top, pebbles underneath, on an iron vein—or the “archaic” winemaking process or the estate’s historic cellar, which is damp and cool and where vintage wines have fermented for a long time and waited in barrels (from Chateau de Fargues) are cited by some as the reasons for Joliette’s uniqueness. Traditionally, the wine was bottled unblended, resulting in variances from barrel to barrel. In 2018, a significant inventory was conducted to identify each batch. Joliette was vinified at Jean-Marc Grussaute’s cellar in 2016 and 2017 after the Migné family and Michel Renaud, a wine trader in Paris at the time. Following that, Lionel Osmin took over the plot with help from Domaine Castera’s Franck Lihour, who vinified three vintages: 2018, 2019, and 2020. The same Lionel Osmin currently owns the vineyard, which had fallen into disrepair due to inheritance issues. We genuinely hope that this label, this special location that can produce one of the best wines in the world, will find stability and peace.
The wines
having a wide range of wines allows us to assess the vineyard’s recent, exciting history in terms of flavour. We are relieved to learn about the three vintages that Franck Lihour has just bottled and vinified! They fit into the various, kaleidoscopic nature of Clos Joliette’s incarnations and are consistent with its charm. With more than 50g of residual sugar, the 2020 has a genuine sweetness that is swiftly absorbed by the substance’s intensity and flavour, which lingers over a remarkable candied grapefruit bitterness. Significantly drier (7g residual sugar), the 2019 is a wine of fire, solar, ardent, transcended by its acid vein, with a complex flavour that oscillates elusively between oxidative/organic suggestions (butter, egg yolk, ham fat) and unexpected fruity returns.
This characteristic is exclusive to Joliette and can also be found in the 2018 edition, which is similarly dry and well-balanced but retains that fire, through which a rich, decadent taste with distinct depth slowly emerges: mango, apricot, honey, crème brûlée, coffee, etc. The same level can be seen in the 2004 vintage, to which truffle and even black olive have been added over time. It is a wine of exceptional purity, incredibly alluring but never easy, and it displays its great force with amazing grace. Warm biscuit and orange marmalade are the centrepieces of the 2000’s aromatic fantasia, which it crafts with remarkable refinement and intensity through a memorable acidic tension.
Wearing a colourful robe, 1996 assaults the senses with scents of black truffle and dried mango, pushing the gustatory feeling to its utmost. This flavour is carried like a dream by the perfectly merged matter, fire, and acid tension. The only reason we don’t offer these wines a perfect grade is because we can still taste other vintages or batches! Let’s sample the 2017 vinified by Jean-Marc Grussaute, who aged it for over six years, to wrap up this summary of a tale.
Although it is neither genuinely Jurançon nor genuinely Joliette, this is another world unveiled, a different viewpoint, and undoubtedly a fantastic wine that will continue to mature. Originating from the December harvest, this is a real liquoreux, with a rich amber colour and a palate full of spices, candied zest, and autumn fruit pastes that have an almost oriental flavour.
Vineyards and grape varieties
There are 2000 bottles produced annually.
1.5 hectares of planted land (White: 1.5)
Method of harvesting: manual
Vine ages on average: 80
Purchased grapes: No
