Domaine Ratte
In the town of Arbois, you will find the small Domaine run by husband and wife team Michel-Henri and Françoise Ratte. Vineyards have been in Françoise family for generations but they have always been under the shackles of a fruitier, selling their fruit under contract until now. In 2015 they broke free, not an easy feat considering you are usually signed for life here, and started making wine for themselves from some of the best terroirs in Arbois.
They own 9 hectares of vines from famed parcels such as Les Corvées, Clos Maire and Pré Levront. Vine ages are between 20-80 years old but there is still a small part of 100 year old Savagnin plants in Pré Leveron planted by François Great Grandfather. They have been working their vines organically with Biodynamic principles since 1989 around which time they acquired more vineyards, replanting them biodynamically from the start. A process François insists is the best way to produce amazing quality fruit from vines that have never seen chemicals. Everything is carefully planned in the vineyard for best use of their terroirs. Trousseau is from the increasingly rare Trousseau á la Dame, Poulsard is the old musqués variety and Pinot is selection Massale of the Jura.
A new office and cave have been built on the outskirts of Arbois close to the vines and houses all the stainless steel fermentation vats where all wines are fermented with wild yeast. They are transferred to old burgundy barrels for maturation and bottled without filtering. Nothing added, nothing taken away. Kept as pure as possible to show their great terroirs from which they originate.
Their son Quentin has also joined the business having just finished his viticulture studies so the future looks bright for this long standing Arbois vineyard family and we are so pleased to have their wines here in Australia.
