Petit Manseng, Clos Larrouyat 'Météore'

apricot │ alpine │ textural

Electric orchard fruit, mountain honey without the sweetness, lime zest, white flowers, and a decisive mineral streak that feels like wet river stones right after a storm. Jurançon Sec always lives in the tension zone, and ‘Météore’ absolutely crackles there. The 2022 vintage leans a touch rounder through the center, but the finish still snaps dry with citrus pith and this beautiful herbal edge.

Fermented with native yeasts, aged on lees in stainless and large neutral oak, and bottled with minimal fuss. Gros Manseng brings the acidity and structure; Petit Manseng brings the perfume and the texture. Together they behave like a high-energy white Rhône that wandered into the Pyrenees and cleaned up its act.

Clos Larrouyat is a tiny two-person estate where everything is done by hand, and you can taste the precision. They’re obsessed with expressing the cooler foothill parcels of Jurançon in a way that feels pure, lifted, and mountain-driven.

Jurançon is one of those regions people forget is an appellation and not a grape. But once you’ve had real Manseng — dry, tense, aromatic — you start wondering why the rest of the wine world isn’t doing more of this.