VIN JAUNE LA MAILLOCHE 2012 (Stéphane TISSOT)

La Mailloche is a place located in Arbois whose atypical soils make it earn this nickname. A mailloche is a big two-headed wooden hammer used by lumberjacks and the hardest wood is used to form the "mailloche" head : this place was so named by the elder because its soil in summer is hard "like a mailloche's head".

The La Mailloche terroir is indeed made up of a layer of silts and decalcifying clays, about ten meters thick, which rests on a layer of Lias gryphite limestones, dating from -201 to -174 million years ago, when the Jura was covered by a shallow sea, said to be "confined", that is to say, few agitated and oxygen deficient. The latter favored the deposit of clay mud, the Lias marls. The presence of calcareous beds scattered in these marl reflects rare periods of greater agitation with a better environment oxygenation leading to carbonates precipitation, and some of these calcareous banks contain many oyster fossils called gryphites, hence the name of gryphite limestone.

The thick silts and clays layer present at the top of the slope comes from the gryphite limestones underlying layer dissolution that began 15,000 years ago during the last glaciation phase and continues today. In the lower part of the slope, silt was collected by runoff. This type of terroir is rare in the Jura vineyards.

The grapes are harvested manually and then pressed by pneumatic pressing. The fermentation starts spontaneously in vats with native yeasts. At the end of the malolactic fermentation, the must is slightly sulphited to avoid any accident and then aged in 228 liters barrels without any topping (oxidative ageing) for 6 years.

The wine is then slightly filtered before bottling in order to avoid any risk of autolysis (dead yeasts autodegradation process). The single plot vin jaune La Mailloche has a very atypical expression, certainly due to its exceptionally clayey soil : the juice is dense and its complex aromatic bouquet evokes hop.