Domaine Cauhapé Jurançon Folie de Janvier / 2010 / 375mL

Description:

The Domaine Cauhapé Folie de Janvier 2010 is a richly sweet Petit Manseng from Jurançon in South-West France, picked in January after the grapes have shrivelled and taken the frost on the vine. Deeply golden and unashamedly concentrated, it still carries the bright acid spine that keeps great Jurançon from ever tasting heavy.

Aromas run to candied orange peel, quince paste and dried apricot, with honey, nougat and baked apple sitting behind them, and a lift of white pepper and warm spice at the edges. The palate is thick and glossy, sweetness arriving in waves of marmalade and prune, then narrowing as the fruit dries towards preserved citrus rind.

Texture is the point here — viscous and slow-moving, but cut clean by the piercing natural acidity Petit Manseng is prized for, so the finish lengthens rather than cloys. Fifteen years on from the 2010 vintage, the wine has traded some of its primary sweetness for tea leaf, dried fig and a faintly saline savouriness.

Serve it well chilled with Roquefort or a firm sheep's milk cheese, foie gras, or a simple tarte Tatin. It also does very nicely on its own, in a small glass, after dinner.

The 375mL format is the sensible way to meet a wine this intense: two or three generous pours rather than a bottle you feel obliged to finish, and a half bottle matures faster than a 750mL, so this one is fully open for business now and should hold comfortably through to around 2030.