Les Jamelles Wine
Authentic Varietal French Wines
If one had to sum up the history of Les Jamelles wines in a few words, “the fruit of auspicious encounters” would be the natural choice… The history of these wines has been punctuated by several more or less fortuitous encounters that led to the creation of the brand in the early 1990s and to its development over the last two decades.
It was inevitable that Catherine, the daughter of Beaujolais winegrowers, and Laurent, representing the 5th generation of a family of Burgundian negociants, meet at university in 1986 where they were both studying oenology. Their future was destined to be in wine – that was for sure!
In the early 1990s, there was not much opportunity for growth for young, enthusiastic winemakers in Burgundy, so Laurent and Catherine set off to discover the Languedoc region, which was undergoing great changes at the time. The diversity of its terroirs and grape varieties represented the new Eldorado that would allow them to create the wines they had been dreaming of making – wines that were round, balanced, expressive and typical of their grape varieties!
Melvyn Master, a long-time friend of Laurent’s father, was a specialist in the US market, where he was based. Catherine and Laurent spoke to him of their project and the three of them decided to work together to create a brand of French varietal wines from scratch! An innovative project at the time, which went against the traditional French approach that had historically been based on the notion of terroir rather than varietal. The new brand was christened “Les Jamelles”: a feminine name to evoke the roundness of the wines, in the plural form to reflect the diversity of the varietals, and melodious to recall the wines’ Languedoc roots, land of the troubadours.
Les Jamelles wines bear within them this very notion of sharing and exchange. With a range boasting over 30 cuvées that are exported to 45 countries, Les Jamelles has become a reference name in high-quality French varietal wines, and its history continues to be written day after day!
