Domaine Labet 2003 Marc de Jura

Domaine Labet 2003 Marc de Jura (45.0%): Now this one is quite an exciting sample for me... Last vial bottle left from our sample swap with Florin and it is a Marc de Jura..! I am a big fan of any Marc and I absolutely like wines from Jura region but I have never tasted a Marc from Jura... The spirit is distilled from Savagnin, Poulsard and Chardonnay skins left from the wine making process and aged for ten years in oak casks.

Color: Dark amber, chestnut honey.

Nose: Imagine walking into an antique shop in a small town: Hardwood furniture, old leather luggages and old cork surfaces. Pickled vine leaves, black soil and a hot summer walk in the woods. Clay, red wine vinegar and some very old dry sherry. Grape skin and salty feta cheese brine. It has a mature and dry nose with a lot of oaky aromas... With a couple drops of water it opens up quite nice. It gets more earthy and less woody.

Palate: Salty... Olive brine, garden soil and dry leaves. A little hot... A few drops of water helps. Toasted staves, grape juice and calvados. Rock salt, roasted almonds and hazelnuts with their skin on and cider vinegar. Surprisingly salty palate...

Finish: Long and dry. Toasted wood with bitter greens and endives. Salty...

Overall: Throughout the whole tasting I couldn't help myself comparing it to the Jacoulot Marc de Bourgogne which I reviewed a few months back and at the end I ended up pouring a glass of Jacoulot to taste them side by side. They are very different indeed but both beautiful spirits. While Marc de Jura is a very salty, earthy and woody spirit, Marc de Bourgogne is more gentle, juicy and peppery. This was a great chance to compare these two beautiful and rare spirits... I probably expressed this more than enough on this blog and on social media but will say it again nonetheless: I simply cannot recommend Marc enough to any distilled spirits enthusiast... They are the the gueuze/lambic beers of spirits world. Hard to find, even harder to like the first time you taste them but if you give a chance to your nose and palate to develop a taste for it you might get addicted like I did. This is another great example and still available at K&L Wine Merchants.... Many thanks again to Florin for the sample.

Price: $40

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