Domaine des Miroirs I Need the Sun 2018 / Ja-Do! 2021 | Two Expressions from the Jura

2026.08.21

The same producer. Chardonnay on one side, two Jura red varieties on the other.

On the left is I Need the Sun 2018.
On the right, Ja-Do! 2021.

Both are made by Kenjiro Kagami, the Japanese winemaker behind Domaine des Miroirs in the Jura region of France.

I Need the Sun takes Chardonnay in an unusual direction, fermenting the grapes with their skins to create texture and depth beyond the conventions of a typical white wine.

Ja-Do!, meanwhile, brings together Poulsard and Trousseau, two red varieties closely associated with the Jura.

The same place. The same winemaker.

Change the grape and the approach, and an entirely different landscape appears in the glass.

From Japan to the Jura: Kenjiro Kagami

Before becoming a winemaker, Kenjiro Kagami worked as an engineer in Japan.

His growing interest in wine eventually took him to France in 2001, where he studied winemaking and gained experience with producers including Domaine Comte Georges de Vogüé in Burgundy, Thierry Allemand in Cornas and Bruno Schueller in Alsace.

Through his connection with Jean-François Ganevat, Kagami later acquired vineyards around Grusse in the southern Jura and began producing wines under his own domaine around 2011.

Kagami means “mirror” in Japanese.

That idea became the name Domaine des Miroirs — the Domaine of Mirrors.

I Need the Sun 2018 | Chardonnay with Skin Contact

I Need the Sun 2018 is made entirely from Chardonnay.

Rather than pressing the grapes immediately and fermenting only the juice, the destemmed fruit spends approximately two weeks fermenting with its skins in stainless steel.

The wine is then matured for around two years in used barrels and larger wooden vessels before further time in bottle. Published information also describes spontaneous fermentation with native yeasts, without fining or filtration and without added sulphur.

Chardonnay is one of the world’s most familiar grape varieties.

Yet allowing it to remain with its skins changes the colour, aroma and texture of the finished wine.

Some international retailers describe I Need the Sun as an orange wine, while it has also been distributed as a white wine.

The category is perhaps less interesting than the result.

What happens when Chardonnay is allowed to express itself differently?

I Need the Sun offers one answer.

Ja-Do! 2021 | Two Jura Grapes in One Wine

Ja-Do! 2021 takes another direction entirely.

This is a red wine made from Poulsard and Trousseau, two varieties deeply connected to the Jura.

Poulsard is naturally pale in colour and often produces delicate, transparent wines.

Trousseau tends to bring greater colour, structure and spice.

Kagami works with very small vineyard holdings. Published vineyard information places his Poulsard plantings at around 0.4 hectares and Trousseau at approximately 0.2 hectares, making the red varieties only a small part of the domaine.

Ja-Do! therefore occupies a different place from a wine designed for large, regular production.

It is a small-scale expression of two varieties that belong closely to the landscape in which Kagami works.

I Need the Sun. Ja-Do!

The names themselves are difficult to ignore.

I Need the Sun.

And,

Ja-Do!

They are neither formal French vineyard names nor grape varieties.

They sound more like fragments of conversation written across the label.

Yet behind those informal names are wines rooted very closely in place.

Chardonnay from the Jura, fermented with its skins.

Poulsard and Trousseau brought together in a red wine.

The labels may feel playful, but the wines themselves remain focused on grape, vineyard and minimal intervention.

What Becomes Clear When the Two Are Side by Side

I Need the Sun 2018 and Ja-Do! 2021.

White and red.
Chardonnay and Jura red varieties.
2018 and 2021.

At first glance, there are more differences than similarities.

That is precisely why they are interesting together.

The same person can work in the same region and produce wines that look and taste entirely different when the grape variety, vintage and method change.

A winemaker’s identity does not necessarily mean making the same wine again and again.

Placed side by side, these two bottles show another way of understanding Domaine des Miroirs: not through a fixed house style, but through the way Kenjiro Kagami responds to each grape and each wine.