New Arrivals from Michel Gahier
1/24/26 -
It’s always an exciting time of year when we get our small but mighty allocation of incredible wines from Michel Gahier, who consistently makes some of the most pure and electric wines from Jura (or anywhere really) year after year. Based in Montigny-les-Asures in Arbois, the Gahier family has been making wines here since 1874 but Michel really leaned into and perfected the craft when he took over the land from his father and converted it to a dedicated winery. Gahier is a strict minimalist when it comes to farming and making wine, never having used chemicals and allowing his wines to express the full nature of the place. Michel trained with neighbor Jacques Puffeney, a Jura legend, and even inherited some of his barrels when he passed away in 2015. These barrels have never been sterilized and carry on the legacy of Puffeney through Michel’s lens with each new vintage.
-Jeff DiLorenzo
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Here are some notes from Rosenthal Wine Merchants, Gahier’s importer:
Michel lives right off the main square of Montigny-lès-Arsures, known charmingly as “The Capital of Trousseau,” and indeed he may well produce the most thrilling, layered, and dynamic renderings of the grape variety in the entire Arbois appellation. His white wines are equally impressive; whether topped-up or aged sous-voile, they express their soils of origin with remarkable clarity and offer exceptionally vivid textural nuance.
The 2024 growing season was a challenging one for Michel, with frost and mildew decimating his potential yields—particularly on the whites, production of which is virtually nonexistent and limited to a single cuvée (yet to be released). Despite these arduous conditions, however, Michel’s 2024 reds offer a satisfying sense of classicism, with taut, crunchy fruit, zingy acidity, and gentle, mouthwatering tannins all in terrific equilibrium atop midweight frames. Furthermore, Michel has kindly provided us with additional allocations of several 2023s to make up for 2024’s meager quantities.”
