2016 Cotes du Jura En Chalasse

I encountered a bottle of the 2016 Côtes du Jura Chardonnay en Chalasse from the Labet family and found it powerful, round and lush but with very good balance and freshness, very much in their style. I think this is the finest vintage for this single-vineyard bottling (from their Les Parcelles Rares range) from a site that has been made famous by Ganevat. This comes from a massal selection planted in 2006, 1985 and 1950 on blue marl soils from Lias, and it matured in topped-up barrels for 15 months, which kept nice balance between the alcohol (13.2%) and a low pH (3.08). No sulfur is added to the wines, and the natural levels are very low, but the wines are clean and precise. These wines are scarce and difficult to find, often at very high prices... This is not the current vintage, the 2020 has been released, but I didn't manage to locate a bottle.