Domaine Nigri

The estate goes back to 1685 and the Lacoste family has run it for four generations. Jean-Louis Lacoste, an oenologist trained in Bordeaux, took over in 1994 after spells on the technical teams of Rémy Martin and Suber.

It sits in Monein, in the heart of Jurançon. Seventeen hectares, all organically certified.

They work gros manseng and petit manseng, the two varieties of the area, and two local rarities besides: camaralet and lauzet, which almost nobody plants. From those four they make two dry Jurançons and three sweet.

The sweet wine here is not made with noble rot, and that is what sets it apart from a Sauternes. In Jurançon the cane is cut or broken a short time before harvest, leaving the bunch hanging on the wire but no longer fed by the vine. The fruit shrivels faster than it would still attached to the plant.

The result is twofold: it concentrates sugars, acids and flavours, and by shortening the time the bunch spends on the vine it reduces — without eliminating — the risk of grey rot. It also makes it possible to reach very high sugar levels without the over-ripe flavours a long hang leaves behind.