Jura vigneron Jean-François Ganevat with Sophie Barrett, buyer for NY’s Chambers Street Wines

On my recent visit to the USA, my first for four years, I was partly there to explore at first hand the buzz about Jura wines, most particularly in San Francisco and New York. I already realized there was interest in this obscure little French wine region on my last visit to the USA, but in-between times the combination of a campaign by the Jura growers to expand export sales, and the growth of social media have brought that interest into sharper focus. I wanted to see it for real.

It was all true. Any wine writer or wine lover who I spoke with at the Professional Wine Writers Symposium in Napa, or elsewhere in California and later New York, as soon as I mentioned that I had a focus and knowledge of Jura wines, a light bulb seemed to flash. People from outside of these two States bemoaned the fact that they only had a few Jura wines available. Yet, I pointed out: “you have some and that’s more than most places I can think of in the UK outside London.” And as for the wine shops I visited, the selection of Jura wines made my jaw drop. I even saw them available by the glass in a few restaurants and wine bars.

Frankly Wines, TriBeCA, NYC

At last, there is a glimmer of change in London too, and I should give credit for that partly to Caves de Pyrène, and their associated wine bar/restaurants who import from more producers than anyone else. Gradually other independent importers are picking up producers too, and in the Jura itself some now realize that the UK might be worth looking at again as a possible market. Is this inextricably linked with the organic wine movement? No, I don’t think so, and frankly, for the region’s sake I hope not. However, it is absolutely the case that both the dynamism of the organic growers in the region, and the fact that smaller, independent shops and wine bars both in the USA and the UK often have a focus on both organic and less mainstream grape varieties and wine styles, do help the cause.

So, this post is really to announce that I have started a dedicated Jura blog, named simply Jura Wine, Food and Travel, and on which I plan to post news stories, details of events and tastings (from around the world), and reports on producer visits. I intend also to dig out my notes from visits to the region over the past few years and put them to some good use, bringing them up to date whenever possible, of course. I hope this will form the basis for future projects including a book.

There are already a few posts about recent events and news stories, and some pages with basic information about Jura’s unusual wines. Please go over there, take a look and if you like it, then subscribe, add to your feed and even share with others. In future, I am more likely to post there than here about Jura wines, but I will of course continue to post on other wine regions over here, though probably not as often as I should. And yes, I know, the Savoie wine region needs its own focus too, and there’s another project for the future.

High altitude terraced vineyards in the Aosta Valley ©Wink Lorch

For years, I’ve been toying with ‘mountain wines’ along with ‘Alpine wines’ and ‘high altitude wines’ to describe the category of wines in which I’ve increasingly specialized – wines from Savoie and Jura in particular, but also a sporadic interest and fascination in wines from anywhere close to the Alps: Die, east of Valence in the Rhône, Swiss wine regions, the Italian regions of Aosta, Valtellina, South Tyrol and Trentino, and perhaps even those of Collio in Friuli, and their neighbouring Slovenian vineyards close to the Julian Alps.

Yet all these terms can be shot down in flames, with Jura frankly fitting none of them at all, being not Alpine (the Jura is a separate mountain range), relatively low altitude and at most in the lower foothills of the mountains. And, then there’s the fact that ‘mountain wines’ is a commonly used term in the Napa Valley for wines from vineyards (and often wineries) high up above the valley floor on Mount Veeder, Howell Mountain, Spring Mountain, Diamond Mountain and the highest Atlas Peak, and is, quite frankly a loose term used all over California and the rest of the New World for any vineyards not on the valley floor. Just Google it and you will see what I mean.

Altitude – Take me higher
Here’s a question: are mountain wines necessarily at high altitude, and if so, what defines high altitude? Vineyard altitude has long been an obsession of mine, since I first visited what I thought were the highest vineyards of Europe (they weren’t) near one of my favourite ski resorts in Switzerland.

Contrary to the local publicity, the highest vineyards in Europe are not those of Visperterminen in the Valais, Switzerland, near Zermatt and Saas Fee, despite being up to almost 1150m. They are not even those of Morgex et la Salle in Aosta, reaching up to 1300m, although they held this claim until relatively recently. Outside of certain islands (Cyprus possibly, where only half is in Europe) the honour of the highest vineyards in mainland Europe is held by the vineyards of the Sierra de la Contraviesa-Alpujarra of Granada (southern Spain)where winery Barranco Oscuro is at 1280m and has vineyards planted up to 1368m. If you know anywhere that exceeds this, please let me know!

Are wines from the Marestel cru in Jongieux, Savoie mountain wines? ©Brett Jones

By comparison the ‘mountain vineyards’ of Savoie are mainly from a mere 250m up to 600m with very few at the higher level. Those of the Jura (not Alpine of course) mostly fall into the range 250-450m, not that different to the vineyards of Alsace or even the Côte d’Or in Burgundy. In reality the other Alpine wine areas have very few vineyards above 700m.

At the other side of the world, in the southern Hemisphere in Argentina are vineyards that are considerably higher than in Europe: Mendoza vineyards start at 600m and for many years stretched up to 1100m, plantings in the past 15 years stretching  up to around 1600m; up in Salta, they start at 1500m and rise to over 3,000m with the vineyards of Colomé owned by Hess probably being the highest commercial vineyards in the world, although that claim may belong to some vineyards in Bolivia.

Vins de Montagne/Vini di Montagne – attempting a definition
Google ‘vins de montagne’ or the same in Italian and it is mainly Alpine wines that appear. In January 2012, the town of Chambéry in Savoie hosted the first edition of a supposed biennial wine fair for trade professionals on the Friday, and for consumers over the weekend, entitled Biennale des Vins de Montagne (with an added ‘et des fortes pentes’ meaning ‘and from steep slopes’ that allowed them a little more flexibility with exhibitors).

The exhibitors were roughly one-third Savoie wine producers, one-third from other mountain/steep slope vineyards in France, and the remaining from foreign mountain vineyards. Apart from Savoie, from France there was just one producer from Jura, a couple from Bugey, two from Beaujolais (from the far west of the region with steeply sloping vineyards on the foothills of the Massif Central) and other representatives included producers from Die, Haute Alpes, the Pyrenees and Limoux. Foreigners included a Mosel producer from Germany, two rather large Swiss Valais producers (sad they couldn’t encourage small producers), and the rest from Italy (mainly Valtellina, Aosta and some more obscure Italian Alps areas including Carema in Piemonte).

One of the co-organisers was CERVIM, an organisation based in the Aosta Valley that promotes research into the mountain vineyards of Europe, holds a conference every two years and runs an annual competition. They define mountain wines as those from challenging vineyards that have particular attributes such as:

• Altitude above 500m
• Steeply terraced vineyards (eg Cinqueterre, Banyuls)
• Slope of a great gradient than 30%
• Grown on a small island with steep slopes (eg Greek islands)

Rather delightfully, the term they use as a catch phrase is ‘Heroic viticulture’.

I used the show as a chance to catch up with a good range of Savoie producers (of which more in a future post), plus some Aosta and Valtellina producers (another future blog post is due on these Italian mountain wines) and to enjoy a few real obscurities.

Daniele Coutandin, obviously a heroic mountain winemaker ©Brett Jones

The outstanding new and exciting find for me at the fair was Daniele Coutandin from the tiny Piemontese wine region of Pinerolese DOC, southwest of Turin in mountains on the border with France not far from the resort of Sestrière. This tiny family winery has revived various steep, terraced pockets of vineyards at altitudes from 650-800m, making little more than 2000 bottles of reds from blends of obscure grape varieties. The Ramié 2009 had a wild herbal and fruit nose, with a delicious fresh acidity and a stony, mineral character with great length. This is a producer and an area high on my list of places to explore soon.

The benefits and allure of mountain or high altitude wines
There is no question that altitude, steepness, angle of slope and paucity of soil (often just thin layers of topsoil on solid rock forcing vines to go deep for water) all have an influence on the quality of the grapes. It is proven that colours of red wines are deeper and more sustained when they are from grapes grown at high altitudes. That elusive word ‘minerality’ that we wine tasters love to talk about crops up again and again from wines grown in mountain areas. The altitude means that often there is good diurnal temperature difference during the growing season leading to high acidity, providing balance and ageing ability. And finally, there is also the much misunderstood effects of dissolved oxygen in the wine, which varies with altitude, and is definitely beyond the scope of this post.

Nino Negri's terraces in Grumello, Valtellina ©Wink Lorch

The ‘purity of mountain wines’ is something producers of the Trentodoc sparkling wines from Trentino in Italy discuss as much as the winegrowers of Savoie, whose wines so often come from obscure grape varieties that only seem to thrive in these mountain regions. Does this purity really exist? Of course not, but it’s a lovely quality to imagine.

So many mountain wines made from obscure grape varieties offer ethereal wild flower notes or even wild feral notes, that nature seems never far away. And for those from more conventional varieties grown in these challenging conditions, that fresh acidity and minerality makes ‘purity’ seem a given.

Take a walk in a mountain vineyard high above a busy valley, often with a major road running through it, and one feels above the hubbub, above the pollution trapped in the valley, closer to the gods, as it were… The term mountain wines may be meaningless, but the thought of pure mountain wines entices equally as much as pure Alpine air… And Heroic Wines? Yes, often.

The London Debate

This should and could have been the most important public debate on green issues in wine to be held for a long time. The ‘Great Grape Debate’ was a 2-hour debate run to Oxford-style debating rules and deftly chaired by Antony Moss MW of the Wine & Spirit Education Trust. Both Monty, the proposer and Richard, the opposition are highly experienced in their respective fields, and known to have opposing views on organic issues.  The motion debated was “The UK Wine Trade should promote Organic and Biodynamic Wines”. The audience was small, but included experienced UK-based wine trade, media and educators. Videos of the debate can be watched in full on WSET’s YouTube channel.

The debate was reported upon as generally disappointing by Anne Krebiehl of Harpers and Richard Hemming of JancisRobinson.com among others. In addition I have read comments by a) Antony Moss, no longer in his Chairman’s role, on his personal Facebook page arguing that Richard Smart won the intellectual debate and b) by Monty Waldin on Jancis Robinson’s forum explaining that although he had ‘won’ the debate, many of his important points had been lost or misunderstood.

The fact that the room was largely in favour of the motion both before and after the debate indicates only, I believe, that the wording of the motion was poorly chosen. It is obvious that the UK Wine Trade should promote organic wines but to what extent and why are the two important questions to debate. In addition, it became clear in question time that many in the audience felt the consumer was not being  properly considered in our debate, which I should stress was largely about wine farming or viticulture, not about wine production, which after all is not Smart’s forte.

Either a more tightly worded motion or a more controversial one could have had a more interesting result. “The UK wine trade should do more to educate the consumer about the benefits of organic and biodynamic wines” might have been very apt for the WSET as host. Not only would the audience have been much more split at the start of the debate, but also I believe Monty and Richard would have put forward their positions much more clearly in their short time. The important issues would have come out sooner, and the audience questions would have been more heated than in fact they were.

Lies, damn lies and statistics
It is clear that no-one knows what proportion of the world’s vineyards are farmed organically (including biodynamically) and those consumers who are particularly interested in seeking out organic wines believe there are far more than is actually the case. For a start, we have the knotty issue of those vineyards that are organically certified by an approved body, and those that are not. Around 10 years ago, the figure stated was around 2% of the world’s vineyards being organic; now I hear 5% is more the accepted figure, but accurate statistics evade my searches.

But, what does this statistic actually mean? Does the figure include the growing numbers of those producers who state they are ‘in conversion’ to organics through a recognised certification system or through just their good intentions (or a few, dare I suggest, perhaps not with such good intentions, but converting for marketing, rather than conviction reasons). Quite a proportion of producers who claim to be ‘natural’ (and yes, I’m one who hates that word, but more of this later) are not certified and some of these do not even farm 100% organically; conversely there are significant numbers of wine producers who do not claim any label whatsoever, but who have been farming organically for many years and would not dream of ever using chemical fertiliser, herbicide, fungicide or pesticide on their vineyards.

Good, bad, organic or natural wine
The term ‘natural wine’ is something I’ve been agonizing about writing a post on most of this year, during which time countless posts and articles have been written on the subject by others, some of which I’ve read and digested and two important books have appeared – Naked Wines by Alice Feiring and Authentic Wines by Jamie Goode and Sam Harrop, neither of which I’ve read yet. I don’t want to be seen as arguing against natural wine for the sake of it, but the following is my personal reasoning.

When I started work in wine over 30 years ago, there was simply ‘wine’ and most UK wine drinkers knew very little about how what they were drinking was made (possibly still the case). Because I became impassioned by the business and chose to make it my career and life, I learnt about it through recognised courses and experiences in working in the business. Thus, I knew – unlike most consumers – about the fact that there was nothing ‘natural’ about wine – fertilizers, pesticides, herbicides etc in the vineyard; sugar, filter agents and most notably sulphur dioxide (SO2 or sulphites) etc added in the winery – this was what was needed to make drinkable wine I learnt. On the other hand, at that time there was still a significant proportion of very bad wine around – oxidized wine, wine reeking of too much SO2 and a host of other faults, not to mention simply hard, acidic or tannic wines, devoid of any attractive fruit.

By the end of the 1980s, the overall quality of wine at every level was improving dramatically. In simplistic terms this was partly due to the rigour introduced by the New World in their wine production methods and partly due to the fact that many more wine producers were trained at winemaking colleges and avoided the most obvious winemaking faults. Better understanding of the importance of hygiene, and technology improved too, allowing in particular less SO2 to be used in the winemaking process, whilst still keeping the wines stable and fresh. At around the same time the organic movement started making some waves. Those of us in the business back then remember the huge quality variations in these wines that succeeded in putting some people off organic completely.

By the turn of the millennium, organic wines had also started to improve dramatically, and biodynamic wines were firmly on the radar. Personally, once I started to understand the philosophies behind the work being done, I found it hugely exciting that at last the environment was being considered in wine production and that some very good wines emerged from producers using these methods. I never once believed these wines were ‘better for the health’ but if they tasted good and at least protected the environment to some extent, why should I have anything but praise and encouragement for them?

The movement for natural wines
For me, the ‘Natural Wine Movement’ has spoilt the party. I was and remain a supporter of well-made, good tasting organic and biodynamic wines (strictly speaking, wines made from organic and/or biodynamically-farmed grapes). I am also delighted when I hear of innovation in wineries aiming to use fewer additives: wineries that shun chaptalization and acidification whenever possible; wineries  who normally use cultured yeasts experimenting with natural yeasts; keeping SO2 levels at low levels through use of excellent hygiene and controlled temperatures; and overall thoughtful winemaking. I have enjoyed over the years explaining these philosophies and methods to consumers whenever I have conducted tutored tastings to wine clubs and other groups. But, the fact that a proportion (anything from 10 – 50%) of any range of self-declared natural wines I’ve tasted has been either faulty or downright unpleasant, or indeed has deteriorated really quickly once opened, frankly upsets me and makes me worried on behalf of the excellent organic and biodynamic producers who increasingly find themselves bracketed with natural wines without even choosing to be.

Organic or ‘biologique’ as the French call it (‘biologico’ in Italian) and biodynamic are terms that are hard but not impossible to explain to consumers, and in my view consumers should be encouraged to support these wine producers. The terms ‘natural wine’ ‘nature’ (in French) or ‘natura’ (in Italian) are highly confusing for consumers and explanations tend to be full of waffle and inexact. Many wine producers have for years used the term ‘natural wine production methods’ in their marketing blurb meaning nothing at all. Then there is the Brut Nature label of sparkling wines with no dosage – I have met consumers recently who have been confused by both of these statements, thinking that the wines would be ‘natural’ when in fact they were not in any sense.

Isabelle Legeron MW, the most qualified active supporter of the natural wine movement in the UK, has done the best job at explaining natural wines and trying to develop a useable definition on her website, but there is no overall accepted definition for either wine producers or consumers to follow. Jancis Robinson MW, who as always is keeping her beady eye on the movement with various comments, wrote that early this month in Burgundy, she found herself trying to explain what natural wines were to Madame Lalou Bize-Leroy, of the famous and pioneering biodynamic wine producer, Domaine Leroy. In my own speciality area of Savoie, the biodynamic wine producer Michel Grisard of Domaine Prieuré St-Christophe whose wines were shown at London’s Natural Wine Fair laughed ruefully when I asked him why – he had no choice really, his importer had agreed to offer his wines for tasting and wanted his support, he hated the term ‘vin nature’ he said. These are great, great wine producers who make the best possible wines they can with respect to the environment – that is the message these producers would like to put across and the term ‘natural’ does them a disservice by associating them with too many faulty wines, risking bringing us back to the days when most consumers thought that organic wines were a highly risky buy in terms of the pleasure they might get.

Conventional wines and sustainability
In the debate in London, Richard Smart told of the fear growing amongst wineries he consults to about whether they would receive unfavourable critique for not converting to organic viticulture. In my own travels I have felt a certain defensive stance emerge amongst wine producers who do not practice organic methods – just one example of an ‘excuse’: in mountain regions with steep vineyards, to shun herbicides completely requires a huge amount of manual labour, that some producers can’t  afford.

However, many producers are being credited with using sustainable practices either with or without local certifications. Up until recently I’ve been very suspicious of the various sustainable accreditation schemes. In most they aim to reduce chemical use in the vineyard, using accurate weather forecasting to ensure only the minimum amount of chemicals is used on a strictly ‘as needed’ basis. However, I felt that most of these systems were limited in the good they did to protect the environment, paying lip-service only to green ideas. Yet, in the debate, from their different viewpoints both Richard and Monty touched upon sustainability as one answer to the future of greener wine production.

Bearing in mind that nearly 95% of vineyards are not entirely organically farmed, then a greater attention to truly sustainable methods along with better policing of such programmes should be highly encouraged. Not only this, but these programmes should address carbon footprint, recycling and use of local resources and people whenever possible.

The natural wine movement was inspired by the fact that organics did not encompass winery practices, therefore if there was a properly policed sustainable movement/accreditation to cover limiting (but not necessary forbidding) use of legal additives in the winery too, then we might be getting somewhere. There is an informal group of young wine producers in France who call themselves “Contains sulfites…. mais pas trop” which means “contains sulphites (spelt in their case the American way), but not too much”. It did made me smile when I saw it, though reading their philosophy in French it could baffle the average consumer (and note, I’m talking about average, not the intelligent, already ‘green’ thinking consumer) with phrases such as “addicted to their terroir” “respect for the environment” and “made only with sweat and passion”.

Considering that wine, relatively speaking, is a luxury item, every side of the wine trade should pay much more attention to the environment, and the consumer deserves to be reassured a) that claims made on green credentials are accurate and properly communicated and b) that they will find a good wine when they open the bottle. This debates must continue, feel free to continue it here in the comments.

This latest update highlights a few interesting encounters on a visit in August whose main purpose was to research the story of the 1774 bottle and Vin Jaune today for a forthcoming magazine article.

Christophe Menozzi and the 1947
I’ve known sommelier Christophe Menozzi for several years since he ran a small hotel restaurant in Doucier that I visited a couple of times, and then later a restaurant in Besançon where we enjoyed a great meal too. A decade ago Christophe won a string of sommelier awards whilst he was still working in Switzerland including the Ruinart best sommelier of Suisse Romande in 1999, best sommelier of Jura Franche Comté in 2000 and Maitre Sommelier de France in 2001.

Passionate about his adopted region of the Jura, Christophe has helped my understanding of Jura wines greatly over the years, and today works as an independent wine educator, consultant and sommelier, though is frustrated about the slowness of some of the authorities and producers in the Jura about adopting some of his projects aimed to help the region. We had dinner with him at his home at the start of our visit to the Jura partly so that I could ask him some questions about my quest to understand the story of old Vin Jaune better. I happened to mention that I had actually tasted relatively few old wines of the Jura. Christophe disappeared into his cellar and emerged with a surprise, completely unplanned, not opened in advance, and not a Vin Jaune, but really a special wine, over 60 years old.

A 1947 vintage at the kitchen table ©Brett Jones

Côtes du Jura white 1947 from Jean Bourdy was golden, with a slight amber tinge. The nose kept changing as time went on, firstly smelling a little of toast, then gradually becoming sweeter and more citrus in character. On the palate it was dry, but incredibly rich and even honeyed. It had such lovely length, quite extraordinary. For the record, Bourdy’s white today is Chardonnay (though not labelled), but back then there might have been a little Savagnin blended in. I learnt later that 1947 was considered to be one of the ten best vintages of the century … Thank you, Christophe!

Jean-François Bourdy and the 1781
We had a long and interesting visit with Jean-François Bourdy in Arlay at the end of the trip, so that I could get his take on the very old wines of the Jura – the Bourdys (currently the 15^th generation) have the largest selection of old Jura vintages on sale, and keep meticulous records, as well as having built up an interesting museum of wine-related items and family heirlooms.

Bourdy treasures ©Brett Jones

Jean-François has evidence that wines have been kept back from sale in his family since the mid-18^th century, and from the late 19^th century (the 1896 vintage), his great-grandfather started the tradition of keeping back 100s of bottles of each style of wine made. They now have a stock of 30,000 bottles, changing the corks and topping up if required about every 50 or 60 years. At that time, of course they taste, so Jean-François has quite some experience of tasting liquid history. The oldest wine he has tasted was their 1781, tasted in 1998 with his father and grandfather. He told me that it was the greatest wine he had ever tasted, with both power and elegance and “l’equilibre absolu” (perfect balance).

Pierre Overnoy and the two 1991s
Considered one of the ‘fathers’ of natural wine, I don’t know the legendary Jura vigneron Pierre Overnoy very well (I think that would take many, many meetings), but each time I have met him has been a great experience. This time, I made the appointment specifically to discuss the 1774 wine, which I knew he had tasted. At 73 Pierre is retired in theory, his young friend (almost adopted son) Emmanuel Houillon having taken over his vines and winemaking. Despite this, he is still in great demand to meet, so I was not surprised to find that he had other guests when we arrived, as instructed, not at his house in Pupillin, but at the location of his bread oven in a nearby field!

A restaurateur from nearby town Dôle had brought along Alber and Tamae, a Spanish-Japanese/chef-sommelier couple from the Dos Palillos restaurant in Barcelona, and previously employed by  the famous (now closed) El Bulli. When we arrived, Pierre was in full flow, talking and offering a couple of wines to taste, and as usual everything he said was highly educational. I made a note: Pierre’s own mentor, Jules Chauvet, said that the quality in wine lies in the length on the palate. Of course it does!

All fooled by Pierre Overnoy ©Brett Jones

After a beautifully mineral and lemony, fabulously textured, recently bottled Savagnin 2005 (not oxidative, but topped up – Pierre was one of the first in the region to do this), Pierre turned up the heat with a little challenge, two wines blind, a red – Ploussard, of course, the grape of the village of Pupillin – and another white. We all failed miserably in this guessing game.

The Ploussard, which we tasted first, had a typically pale red colour, but the nose and the palate showed really ripe fruit, together with balanced acidity, and it seemed to me to be from a warm year. The finish was almost sweet, but with a dry, mineral edge (typical of no SO2, I find increasingly). I guessed 2003, how wrong could I be. We were shocked when he revealed the vintage to be the tiny frost-stricken 1991 vintage.

Onto the white and we thought that we were wising up to Pierre’s tricks, guessing older vintages, but whether it was Savagnin or Chardonnay, we couldn’t agree. This was real ‘orange wine’ but of the best sort. A golden colour, with a hint of green, a nose that was evolved and orange-like too, and orange peel even emerged on the dry palate that showed very high acidity. I thought it must be Savagnin and guessed 1982. Very wrong again! This wine, Pierre explained had very high volatile acidity and was aged for over 17 years in an oak barrel, but topped up (so not 100% of its vintage). It was Chardonnay 1991 – fascinating!

Incidentally, next time I must remember to catch up on my reading before visiting Pierre. It seems that 1991 is the vintage of choice for Pierre’s party tricks this year … see Alice Feiring’s blog, and  search for Overnoy for tales of two encounters… and to think that I could have shown off my ‘knowledge’!

Stéphane Tissot and the two 2004s

Les Bruyères 2004 ©Jim Budd

With the 2003 vintage, Stéphane Tissot decided to launch two terroir-specific Arbois Vins Jaune alongside the standard blend. In August he gave me the 2004s to taste, En Spois (which is a steep east-facing vineyard on a young Triassic, quite rich soil) and Les Bruyères (a south-facing vineyard on which he also grows Chardonnay, which I’ve always enjoyed; the soil here is also the Triassic clay-rich soil but has the classic Jura blue marl below, ideal for Savagnin). We tasted them just opened, and also 2 bottles opened 24 hours previously.

En Spois 2004 ©Jim Budd

As Stéphane gave me two clavelins to taste at home, we have also been ‘testing’ these and due to circumstances, tasted them with a two week gap (in that time they were about three-quarters full, and kept in our quite cool cellar). These two wines are really very different. En Spois is very slightly darker in colour and delightful at first, with a lightly curried, nutty and creamy character with almost burnt candied citrus notes, with high acidity and alcohol well in balance even at 15.8%, rounded fruit and long, drinkable right away. The slightly paler, green-gold Bruyères is immediately more complex with more candied fruits and nuts, less curried notes. On the palate, this was somewhat harsh in acidity to begin with, complex yes, but crying out for ageing. Tasting after being open 24 hours, the En Spois was silky but elegant, the Bruyères unctuous and long; tasting after two weeks, the En Spois was showing marked oxidation, drinkable still, but better for the cooking pot, whereas the Bruyères had evolved into something fabulous, reminiscent of aged Amontillado Sherry, but crisper in acidity of course – this is the one that should age for a decade or probably much longer. Terroir-specific Vins Jaunes – a radical concept that Stéphane wants to do more of – he is such a passionate and ever-questing winemaker, and very good for the Jura to shake up ideas.

My Jura friends, thank you all for sharing and I look forward to more experiences soon.

Henri Maire struggles
In what was seen by many as a sad occasion for Arbois and for the Jura wine world, after several years of financial problems, the family of Henri Maire (who died in 2003) sold the company in June 2010 to Verdoso, a Luxembourg-based investment firm.

To any wine lover, the most valuable assets of the company would seem to be its 300 hectares of vineyards and its extensive stocks of old Vin Jaune (both in bottle and in barrel, but the latter not stored in the best of conditions). The purchaser is a company with no experience of the wine business who bought it apparently for its vertical direct sales network. Signs a year after the sale were not good, with sales figures continuing to plummet, redundancies, the unexpected sale of the highly successful, large Arbois restaurant La Finette (a good showcase for the wines, established by Henri Maire 50 years ago). In addition 14 hectares of vineyards have been put up for sale. A small turnaround in sales has recently been reported, and the firm continues to recruit new sales staff.

One other small positive sign: in June this year, a new technical director joined the company, Emmanuel Laurent (ex-Antonin Rodet of Burgundy), so maybe there is some hope of quality improvements for vintage 2011. The quintessential Deux Tonneaux shop remains open in the centre of Arbois for consumers to taste and to be sold to…

Wine Tourism develops slowly
In 2009 the Route du Vin des Vins du Jura won one of the first French national wine tourism awards. The route is well signed, has good publications and maps, plus a reasonable website, although the English version does not seem to have been kept up-to-date. Winning awards is all very well, but the reality is somewhat different.

I struggle to keep my own two guides to the Jura wine region on Wine Travel Guides up-to-date, especially with random restaurant closing days. On a visit last month, we were regularly confronted with restaurants closed on unexpected days, and that was in the middle of the peak tourist season in August. As to wine producers welcoming visitors, well the small ones are still reluctant to open their doors to tourists, citing lack of time, staff and facilities. Whatever it says in the Route du Vin’s brochure about opening times, if you arrive without an appointment, you may be disappointed, and arrive to find a little sign on the locked door (in French of course) with a mobile phone number if you are lucky.

However, the choice of lodgings is improving, with some really pleasant chambres d’hôtes (Bed & Breakfasts) opening up in the heart of the vineyard areas. The centre of the wine region, the small wine town of Arbois, is certainly better and better each time I visit, in terms of restaurants, food shops and tourist activities.

With all the buzz going on about Jura wines, especially in the USA, it does seem to be that there may be a market for me to plan and lead some very focussed wine tours for professionals and serious amateurs. I do not wish to set up tour company, but if you are interested in me guiding you around this fascinating region that I now know so well, please get in touch.

Château-Chalon with its finest Sous-Roche vineyards ©Wink Lorch

Recent Vintages – a Summary
2008: Localised hail damage, especially in Arbois, and a miserable summer took their toll especially on reds, where selection needed to be rigorous. However, the weather improved at the end of August and early September was  fine. Overall, somewhat mixed, but decent white wines in particular.

2009: The season was initially not easy, with poor conditions at flowering, however, in August everything improved and results were excellent after several weeks of sunshine leading up to harvest. Quantity was down, a particular concern for the successful category of Crémants du Jura, but quality is high in all varieties and styles, with the only criticism being sometimes too much richness and a lack of characteristic acidity.

2010: Somewhat similar to 2008, with disease pressure in much of summer, especially for red varieties, but yet again, the vintage was saved by a good autumn. Chardonnays are particularly well balanced, and the reds are good, when growers were selective. The later harvested Savagnin suffered a little.

2011 Prospects: After the early spring, everyone was worried about frost, but it stayed warm, with an early and dry flowering leading to forecasts of harvest 3-4 weeks ahead of normal and possible drought. July was cold and wet, slowing things down a little, and during a slightly variable August diseases seem to have been held pretty well held in check, with it getting warmer as the month went on. Nevertheless harvest remains the earliest since 2003 starting for grapes used for Crémant from 24^th August and others from 29th August: postings I’ve seen since have all seemed quite upbeat, time will tell…

See, Jura update part 1 for an assessment of recently released Vins Jaunes.

An Opinion and update on producers
The buzz around social media focuses around the many fine organic producers of the Jura (discussed in part 1 of this update), plus a couple of others, not certified organic, notably Jacques Puffeney and Domaine Montbourgeau who, imported by Neil Rosenthal, have been the most established Jura producers present in the USA market. Yet, let’s be realistic about this. As in most of the wine world, there are many seriously good producers of wine in the Jura, who I feel confident ‘care’ about the environment they live and work in, but who have chosen not to take the organic route, or at least not organic certification, allowing them a certain leeway in difficult years. The Jura region has a strong willingness to adopt sustainable practices – regional bodies are actively encouraging change, however, this does not mean it is realistic for everyone to convert to organics right now.

Recent non-organic Jura wines I have enjoyed include Arbois Savagnin 1987 from Jacques Tissot, bottled after 15 years in large oak foudres, but not like a Vin Jaune at all, fresher and less spicy, and with tremendous depth; Arbois Trousseau 2004 from Daniel Dugois, with that classic hard crunchy red fruit edge, that worked perfectly with pork in mushroom sauce; and then on a very fast visit to Jean-Michel Petit of Domaine de la Renardière we tried their delicious Les Terrasses (Savagnin Ouillée) 2009 and the Vendanges Oublié (late picked non-oxidative Chardonnay/Savagnin). A tasting at Domaine Baud in Le Vernois a while back showed excellent consistency. Producers like Lucien Aviet (known as Bacchus) in Montigny, Philippe Butin in Le Vernois and Château d’Arlay in Arlay are not organic as far as I know, yet their wines are redolent of terroir, and most especially their Vins Jaunes are fabulous; the legendary Domaine Macle in Château-Chalon is one who is not certified organic, fitting into that category of usually organic. The wonderful Chardonnays from Domaines Labet (father Alain and son Julien, with separate estates, though Julien makes the wine for Alain) have always been from sustainable vineyards, only slipping from being organic in certain years – they are amongst my favourites. I’ve heard they are now on the official route to organic certification and wish them luck.

Many young vignerons are setting up, adopting the organic route right away and some are failing, because it is just one more difficult aspect they have to address. Others like Julien Mareschal and Rémi Treuvey (who I wrote about in Wine Report 2006), struggle to keep their heads above water in the non-organic world too. Sadly, the latter is said to be ceasing to make his own wine. Let’s face it, it is not easy being a wine producer anywhere, and the Jura with its very unpredictable weather and heavy soils has emerged as a surprising region to be so focussed on organics. When I asked Jean-François Bourdy of Demeter-certified Caves Jean Bourdy in Arlay recently if the domaine followed the phases of the moon for their biodynamic practices, he answered that yes for some things they do, but with their heavy soils and unreliable weather, the moon be damned, they would work the soil when they needed to – when not too wet and not too dry. For the record, he also told me that never, ever, would they dream of bottling a wine with zero sulphur, but don’t get me started on that.

Still to come in Part 3 in early October: Experiencing a very old Jura wine, a museum and an interesting encounter with Pierre Overnoy.

Overall, whereas the region continues to struggle somewhat in the local and traditional French markets, exports are slowly beginning to make a mark, with a good handful of producers finding importers in the UK, and in both the USA and Japan in particular.

Jura Organic wine fair at Domaine de la Pinte, near Arbois ©Wink Lorch

Organic vineyards in the Jura wine region continue to grow
It has to be said that the organic movement in the Jura seems to be leading the export growth. Surprisingly, given their damp-prone climate and sometimes heavy clay soils, the Jura has proportionately more vineyards run organically than the French average with 13% – 16% (published figures vary) of its vineyard area now organic. At the end of March, 24 organic wine producers of the Jura, both large and small, established and newcomers, biodynamic and not, grouped together (with no overall ‘boss’) to hold their first wine fair – Le Nez dans le Vert - with one consumer day, followed by a morning for the trade. (For non-French speakers, the name of the fair is a classic pun … literal translation being ‘The nose in the green’ but the word ‘vert’ or green, being pronounced the same way as “verre” meaning glass – geddit?).

Held in the large cellars of ever-improving biodynamic estate, Domaine de la Pinte just outside Arbois on the lower hillsides of Pupillin, numbers attending on the Sunday consumer day – said to be almost 1,000 – threatened to overwhelm with parking all down their long access road. Going on all day, the atmosphere was serious, but relaxed and the self-service organic lunch laid on almost managed to cater for everyone. On the following trade-only morning, sommeliers, wine shop owners and press arrived from surprisingly long-distances and producers seemed pleased with the quality of the visitors.

Stéphane Tissot on a summer's day in his Arbois biodynamic vineyards ©Wink Lorch

Established players at the fair included biodynamic producers Stéphane Tissot (of Domaine André et Mireille Tissot), Domaine Pignier, Domaine Ganevat and Domaine de La Tournelle. Also there was the much sought after Domaine Pierre Overnoy/Emmanuel Houillon who has, interestingly, only recently sought organic certification – in fact I remember the first time I had a long talk with Pierre Overnoy (an unofficial founder of the ‘Natural wine movement’ and certainly a pioneer in no-Sulphur wines) about 8 years ago, he had told me that for some years he had relinquished working his vineyards 100% organically, as it was simply not possible to guarantee a crop, though of course, he was much more ‘raisonnée’ (sustainable) than many of those who claim that status.

Other producers there, recently officially in conversion to organics included the Château-Chalon stalwart Jean Berthet-Bondet; specialist in old wines Caves Jean Bourdy (whose wines I like increasingly); and currently enjoying some fame in the USA, Pupillin grower Philippe Bornand, who only offered tank samples in rather flashy magnums. I was not able to taste from everyone (in fact I only just managed to squeeze through the crowds to Overnoy/Houillon and Ganevat before their wines ran out). Aside from those mentioned above, I was impressed with ever-improving quality from Domaine Cybelline (Mesnay), Domaine Octavin (Arbin) and with two newcomers, Hughes-Beguet and Champ d’Etoiles.

Patrice Hughes-Beguet and his English wife Caroline have been established in Mesnay, near Arbois, only since 2009 and farm just under 4ha of vines in Mesnay, Arbois and Pupillin. Patrice trained in oenology after leaving his IT career behind. Wines from the 2009 vintage are promising, and samples more recently tasted of 2010 show well too. Champ d’Etoiles is a new domaine in Gevingey in the Sud-Revermont south of Lons-le-Saunier, where Franco-Belgium couple Fabrice and Valérie Closset have taken over Richard Delay’s vineyards and winery (but not his stocks). Previously working as consultants in the Loire valley, they have converted the 5ha immediately to biodynamic farming, and first tastes of their Pinot Noir and their Chardonnay-Savagnin blend from 2009 were more than promising.

Jura-based broadcaster, consultant and sommelier Christophe Menozzi interviewed me during the fair (in French), you can see the video interview on Jura TV.

Le Nez dans le Vert has a useful website with links to all the above producers, and others who were exhibiting. The fair should be repeated next year with dates scheduled March 25-26 2012.

1774 Arbois 'Vin Jaune' ©Serge Reverchon

Highest auction price ever achieved for a Vin Jaune
At the annual auction of the Percée du Vin Jaune in February 2011, an astonishing bottle was sold for the record price of 57,000€ – namely a ‘Vin Jaune’ 1774. I’ve placed Vin Jaune in inverted commas deliberately because a) there was no label and b) at that time the term Vin Jaune was actually considered pejorative, wines of this type were named ‘Vin de Garde’. It was originally hoped that the bottle would fetch 10-15,000€ but the price went as high as it did for two main reasons: firstly that there were two bidders who both badly wanted the bottle – namely Paris-based collector François Audouze, who lost the battle, and Pierre Chevrier, a Swiss collector of ‘antique’ wines who bought it on behalf of a group of friends; secondly, the history and provenance of this bottle are well-known locally, and two bottles from the same lot were tasted, analysed and recorded in the 1990s, when they were found to be in fine condition.

Good media coverage was achieved for the Jura thanks to the sale, though not all of it, even in the English press, related the correct facts – Decanter published a piece with the wrong vintage stated. The producer Domaine Chevassu, known for high quality Château-Chalon (the appellation considered by some to be the epitome of Vin Jaune) told me that on the Monday after the Percée weekend, their Dutch importer placed an urgent order as his shop had been inundated with orders following the news. As the 1774 Arbois is thought to be the oldest unfortified example of what is likely to be a drinkable wine, it adds to the special allure of the Jura.

I am pleased to say that after meeting with Pierre Chevrier and many others who know much about this old wine dating back to pre-revolution times, I am digging deep into this story for an article that I have been commissioned to write, not only about the history of this bottle but about Vin Jaune in modern times – it will be published at the end of the year.

Recent Vintages of Vin Jaune:
Recently released Vins Jaunes are from vintages 2002, 2003 and 2004, all distinctly different from one another. On the basis of recent tastings I found the 2002s really wonderful, but then I enjoy high acidity and the 2002s have that streak of lemony acidity, that should ensure decades of life. The hot year of 2003 has provided small quantities of surprisingly good Vin Jaune, but slightly atypical with a lot of intense fruit on the nose, am not sure if these will age so well, but it’s much to early to tell. The few 2004s I’ve tasted, just coming onto the market now, seem fine indeed with good balance; the three different Vin Jaune cuvées sold by Stéphane Tissot (one blend and the others from specific terroirs En Spois and Les Bruyères) show great promise.

Read more about it:
If you have enjoyed this update and never saw my original Wine Report chapters on Jura and Savoie, published 2004-2009, they are all available free to download as PDFs at Scribd. And, if you really are getting the Jura bug, also, freely accessible is a quite comprehensive article I wrote for Sommelier Journal in 2008 and an abbreviated version of wine travel piece I wrote for Decanter about the Percée du Vin Jaune in the same year.

Naturellement, I’ve been regularly updating the two Jura travel guides on Wine Travel Guides and continue to tweak this and that, as I make discoveries – vive le web!

To come in Part 2 in early September: Henri Maire, wine tourism, latest vintages, more recommended producers and … an opinion.