Among the calamities threatening to befall his vines, Jean-François Ganevat until then dreaded hail, drought or even mildew, the fungus that ate away his last harvest. But not the major geopolitical crises, which, before Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine in February, logically spared the winegrower. It is indeed difficult to imagine further from the rumblings of the world than his domain of Rotalier, halfway up the slope of Revermont, buttress of the Jura.
To reach this village of 156 inhabitants, you have to leave Lons-le-Saunier behind, before getting lost in the endless hairpin bends between vine shoots, pastures and fields of sunflowers. This is where the king awaits us. fan fan “, as Jean-François Ganevat is nicknamed here. Considered one of the most gifted winegrowers of his generation, a figurehead of natural wines, this 53-year-old from the Jura has transformed a dormant family estate into one of the most renowned in the world: acclaimed by connoisseurs, his juices flow today in sixty-three countries.
This day of September, Jean-François Ganevat does not hold in place. In this month of harvest, the winegrower has a job “over the head”, he says with a well-marked Jura accent. This year, the harvest promises to be bountiful, but the future of the Ganevat estate is uncertain. In September 2021, he sold it at exorbitant prices to Alexander Pumpyanski, son of a Russian oligarch. Stupor in Landerneau. Five months later, Russian tanks cross the Ukrainian border, his friend Alexander finds himself blacklisted by the European Union. Its assets are frozen, leaving the company without a captain.
A fable of globalization
The history of the Ganevat estate can be told like a fable of globalization. Which would begin with the transformation of a wine from the Jura region into a luxury product sold in Tokyo, in the bars of Shibuya, as in New York, on the tables of Brooklyn. The Ganevats have been producing wine since the 17th century.e century. The departmental archives recovered by the parish priest attest to this.
In the Jura, “we were considered as scavengers”, summarizes Jean-François Ganevat.
In addition to their handful of hectares of vines, Jean-François’ parents, Armande and Jean, looked after five cows, whose milk was used to make Comté cheese. They sold 10,000 bottles a year : the customers were individuals from Franche-Comté, but also works councils, like that of Peugeot, in Montbéliard. Jean Ganevat’s juice was tannic and unpretentious. Les Vignerons du Jura – one of the smallest vineyards in France with less than 2 000 hectares – were then far from enjoying the reputation of their Burgundian cousins. “We were considered as scumbags”, summarizes Jean-François Ganevat.
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