It will be ten years this March since I published Jura Wine, and after several printings it still sells well. For many reasons, I decided not to publish a second edition, however, the good news is that I am writing a small companion volume – Jura Wine Ten Years On – to be published before the summer.
Right now, I am running a Kickstarter campaign to raised funds for production and research for the new book, and also to give you the chance to get in first by kicking in for a signed book. Importantly, this will be cheaper for many of you than buying later, especially if you are EU based. Together with my co-publisher and distributor Academie du Vin Library, we will, exceptionally, despatch the Kickstarter copies both from the UK and (for EU backers) from within the EU, so no extra taxes to pay.
The new book will be smaller than the original, but packed full of interesting detail. The pentacrine or star fossils on the cover, found in some of the Jura vineyards, also represent how the region has become a real star.
There is only one week left to go for the campaign (I’ve been to busy with my research to post before!), so please jump in if you haven’t already discovered it through my social media channels, and please encourage others to pledge too. You can kick in for the book from as little as £10 (€12/$13) plus subsidised despatch costs.
What’s Changed in Jura? The challenges and the changes in the world of Jura wine have been many since 2014, not least due to a series of ten roller-coaster vintages, including three with severe frosts depleting quantities dramatically. And this has coincided with a massively increased demand for Jura wines from around the world.
Since the beginning of the year, I’ve already stayed a few days in the Jura wine region on three occasions, not only visiting producers large and small, organic, natural and conventional, but also interviewing local vineyard and oenology consultants, sommeliers and even importers. I have also been visiting wine stores, bars and restaurants in the region and been amazed at how many new ones there are.
Hard at work, listening to the enigmatic Valentin Morel of Les Pieds sur Terre, one of the new band of young vignerons shaking things up in the Jura wine region.
The new book will be quite different from the first and is designed to be a companion volume. As well as discussing the effects of the recent vintages and increased demands, I will address the changes and evolution in the region from the vineyards through the winery to the marketing.
There will be an expanded list of vignerons with a few sentences on each, and finally a section on how best for a Jura wine lover, or even a wine professional, to visit the region these days.
You can read much more about Jura Wine Ten Years On on the Kickstarter campaign page. Thank you for considering backing it. You can also kick in for my original book and for Wines of the French Alps, my second book, or even pay more to have me run a webinar or a live event for you and your friends/colleagues. Thanks for still being here, even though I have not been updating this blog recently.
Hard to imagine these labels from the largest co-operative in the Jura wine region ten years ago
The month of May saw the sad death of two Jura vignerons, who were hugely important figures both locally and internationally. Pascal Clairet, who ran Domaine de la Tournelle with his wife Evelyne, ended his life aged just 58 on 5th May. Lucien Aviet (known as Bacchus) of Caveau de Bacchus died on 28th May, aged almost 84.
Firstly, I would like to extend my heartfelt sympathies to their families and friends. I know that all who have enjoyed their wines over the years, or indeed met these two extraordinary characters on visits to the Jura wine region, will be touched by these losses, as is everyone in the region, or connected with the Jura wine world, to whom they gave so much of their time.
I am personally grateful to both Pascal and Bacchus not only for the wines they crafted – Pascal together with Evelyne, and Bacchus with his son Vincent – but also for what they taught me about the terroirs, grapes and winemaking in the Jura. Both men showed single-minded purpose in the way they chose to bring the Jura terroir to life in their wines.
Although both made highly characterful Chardonnays that reflected their terroir well (interestingly neither vigneron ever made a Pinot Noir as far as I am aware), it was their handling of the three indigenous Jura grape varieties, Savagnin, Poulsard and Trousseau that to me provided the star wines in their ranges.
Their profiles in my book, Jura Wine, were written more than seven years ago but still reflect well these fine Jura estates, which had both very much made their mark on the region by that time. The main photos that feature in this post, kindly provided by Mick Rock of Cephas, chief photographer for the book, were taken exactly eight years ago in the early summer of 2013, one that was slow to kick in, not so dissimilar to 2021.
Born into a farming family, Lucien Aviet made wine full-time from 1960 having returned from fighting for France in the Algerian War. He was one of the first vignerons to bottle his own wine from the vineyards he built up in and around his village of Montigny-les-Arsures.
Of a similar age, Lucien knew Pierre Overnoy well and although many of their vineyard and winemaking methods were different, like Pierre he remained adamant that indigenous yeasts were essential to making good wine. The two of them were the vignerons represented at the famous tasting of the 1774 Arbois ‘vin jaune’ in 1994. Lucien said the experience of tasting a 200-year old wine gave him goose-bumps.
He was an emotional, dedicated man, who for this English woman, took time to get to know. But I felt I knew him enough to write this in my book:
“Much respected locally, Bacchus seems like one of those dyed-in-the-wool traditionalists who believes there’s only one way to do things, yet he presents his opinions almost as a challenge, always accompanied by a mischievous twinkle in his blue eyes. And there is nothing Lucien enjoys more than pouring his wines and sharing laughter and banter around the stove in their old cellars, full of foudres adorned with cartoons and bons mots.” The official notice of his death posted by his family asked that according to his wishes, everyone should raise a glass to celebrate his life.
He was and remains a hard act for his son Vincent to follow, but the latter’s wines are going from strength to strength in quality, still aged in their beautifully maintained Alsace foudres among other oak barrels. Whereas there are wonderful traditional Savagnins and Vins Jaunes, and some fascinating Chardonnays (Cuvée des Docteurs after the medical students who helped Lucien with his first harvest), it is their Trousseau cuvées, named by Lucien Cuvée des Géologues in homage to the geologists who helped him select the best terroirs, that have been among the most wonderful expressions of this grape variety. The great character of Bacchus will always be remembered in the name of their winery, Caveau de Bacchus.
Pascal Clairet: 1962-2021
Pascal was from Montmalin, a vineyard village close to Arbois, but his family were not vignerons; wine became Pascal’s chosen career beginning as a wine technician. He founded Domaine de la Tournelle in 1991, and was running it full-time from 1995, taking on the cellars in Arbois, to be joined a couple of years later by Evelyne.
My earliest memories of meeting Pascal was as part of the press group for the Percée du Vin Jaune almost 20 years ago. He had worked for several years earlier as a technologist for the CIVJ. Along with his friend Jean-Michel Petit, the two were considered then as representatives of the younger generation. Pascal was often there to greet and sweet talk the media over dinners, his support for the Jura allied with his openness and frankness did the job perfectly.
When I started to visit the region regularly, Domaine de la Tournelle soon featured on my priority list for visits, and in those early days it was usually Pascal who hosted me, rather than Evelyne as she would be busy with the children. That said, I must stress that they were the earliest true working partnership of man and woman in the Jura wine world that I came across. It is to Pascal’s great credit that he always appeared to treat Evelyne as his equal in their business, especially in winemaking – she was also qualified as an oenologist. Pascal was the one in charge of the vineyards.
Pascal was discreet about the estate’s conversion to organics, then biodynamics and taking the natural route – he was never one to proselytise, more one to question everything. In his early days he had tasted much at the side of Pierre Overnoy, and had evidently learned from him about handling the difficult Poulsard grape. When, after the blisteringly hot and early 2003 vintage, he made his first no-sulphur-added, carbonic maceration cuvée of Poulsard, rebaptised Uva Arbosiana to reflect the old name of the grape, I was surprised and won over by the wine, eager to learn why and how he had done it. The wine remains a favourite (or possibly the favourite) Poulsard of mine, and I adored a bottle of 2018 shared over a meal in Arbois last summer.
Also influenced by Pierre, Domaine de la Tournelle was one of the earliest to make a Savagnin Ouillé from 1994, named Fleur de Savagnin. Its pristine quality shines brightly providing essence of Savagnin, yet the other Savagnins from the domaine including the Vin Jaune are exemplary too. Trousseau from the fabulous Les Corvées vineyard and beautiful terroir Chardonnays show the huge attention to detail, making a natural wine range that reaches the heights of quality you might find in the best made according to any winemaking regime.
Pascal was a proud man, sometimes troubled yes, and he was another vigneron who loved to share the joy of wine with others. This was utterly in evidence on the October day in 2012 when my late partner Brett and I spent the day with the Clairets for harvest, another time when I learned so much, as well as having enormous fun.
Pascal was one of the early creators of the Le Nez dans le Vert group of organic vignerons and had recently taken on the task of being co-president. In normal times the group organises a large tasting in the Jura once a year for public and professionals, and another in Paris for pros only, but also acts as a support group internally. Many of the younger and more recently established vignerons looked up to him as a mentor, so they will feel his loss particularly badly.
I have little direct contact in the region right now, and it is very early days for Evelyne, but she has indicated to me that, while obviously devastated, she will carry on with all that the pair built up together. I wish her all the courage in the world for the task and sincerely hope that I and others will one day be able to toast the memory of Pascal on the beautiful terrace of their little summer Bistrot de la Tournelle, another fine joint creation of this special couple.
As if these losses were not enough, after a warm month of March this year, April once again delivered debilitating frosts in the vineyards of the Jura as they did elsewhere, causing potential crop losses of up to 50% in some vineyards around Arbois. The losses are still being fully assessed but follow on from bad frosts and low crops for other reasons too in both 2019 and 2017.
Coupled with the complications of Covid halting the important local restaurant trade for so long, not to mention on-site tastings for a period too, the region is struggling to keep a brave face, despite its undoubted continued and growing success on export markets.
I wish all the Jura vignerons the strength to keep on going through all these challenges. We believe in you, your individualistic wines and your fabulous region and thank you for your work and dedication.
Postscript: This is a post about recent events in Arbois, especially. For personal reasons I haven’t been able to write much recently, but it would be remiss of me not to mark also the death of the legendary Château-Chalon vigneron Jean Macle in December 2020, aged 87. He was another man from whom I learned so much. His work is being admirably continued by his son Laurent.
Detailed and colourful wine maps have long been a source of fascination and interest to me. Some designate geographic boundaries of appellations; others indicate the best vineyards or producers; a few will show features such as altitude; and there are also ambitious maps that attempt to combine the above.
In my Jura Wine book, I am proud to have maps by the talented wine educator, blogger and map-maker Quentin Sadler. The main Jura map provides an indication, rather than an exact rendition, of vineyard areas and appellation boundaries, in relation to local towns, rivers and – importantly – altitude. The book also includes a series of larger scale maps showing the location of vignerons profiled.
In the middle of lockdown, while browsing the Purple Pages members forum of Jancis Robinson’s website, I discovered the most original map of Jura I’ve seen in some time, designed primarily, I think, to make you smile. It was created by Brazilian Pedro Kok, an architectural photographer, who happens also to be passionate about wine.
On Pedro’s Instagram accounts in Portuguese and English he enjoys sharing illustrations of bad jokes about grape varieties. However, in lockdown, he decided also to make a series of maps and diagrams of vineyard areas he loved, each one in an entirely different style.
Below – for the sheer pleasure of it – I am sharing the map scrolls that show the Jura wine route between Lyon and Besançon, including producers’ locations, taken from my book. Pedro told me he had some prints made, which he offered to friends in return for bottles of Jura to keep him topped up during lockdown – a lovely swap.
La route des vins du Jura sur le chemin entre Besançon et Lyon by Pedro Kok. 40x30cm inkjet on paper. 2020. Based on iconography by John Ogilby (published: London, 1675), arranged by K.M. Alexander.
The Saint-Laurent quarter Like many villages in the Jura, Montigny-sur-Arsures, the self-styled capital of the Trousseau grape, has several different quarters, and one is named Saint-Laurent. It is here that you will find Château de Chavanes (for some years run as an occasional bed and breakfast, and whose vineyards were taken over by Domaine du Pélican), Domaine Fumey-Chatelain, and at the top of the road, retired vigneron Jacques Puffeney. All are linked in some respects and I spent a very pleasant afternoon on my trip to Jura a few weeks ago reacquainting myself with the quarter, which is in effect a single street.
In my last post I mentioned a quick visit to Domaine du Pélican and since then I had the pleasure of interviewing the owners François Duvivier and Guillaume d’Angerville, as well as tasting six of their wines for the 67 Pall Mall series of masterclasses. If you missed it, you can now watch the video of the entire masterclass.
Having used the cellar of Château de Chavanes since taking over in 2012, Domaine du Pélican is building its own winery on the main vineyard site, complete with a ‘cave à Vin Jaune’ which should be finished next year. Meanwhile, the Fumey-Chatelain family, which has had close links with Château de Chavanes for generations and had taken over the original stables to use as its winery and tasting room, will now expand into the cellar that Pélican has been using.
Domaine Fumey-Chatelain has been run by Raphaël Fumey (a cousin both of Stéphane Tissot and of Frédéric Lornet) and his wife Adeline Chatelain, since 1991. The pair built up a steady local reputation for their wines, gradually increasing their vineyard area to 17ha, with more area to be taken over soon.
Their son, Marin Fumey has officially partnered with his parents on the estate since rushing back after harvest in Australia (and previously South Africa) in April in the middle of lockdown. However, he has been the main winemaker for a few years, while Raphaël runs the vineyards and Adeline the sales side. As he had for several years previously, Marin had been doing the Southern Hemisphere harvest – over the years, he has worked among others with Spinifex in Barossa, Barn Cottage in Central Otago and Peter-Allan Finlayson’s Crystallum in South Africa.
Not only has Marin now extensive winery experience and travelled widely, he also speaks excellent English, a rarity in the Jura. He has ambitious plans to move the family estate towards export sales and is hoping to fully convert the domaine to organics and biodynamics in 2022, if all goes well.
Tasting through the Fumey-Chatelain range for the first time in some years was a pleasure, especially the Trousseaus, which include a more expensive, richer cuvée from a vineyard planted with Trousseau à la Dame. The wine is amusingly labelled ‘Le Bastard’ in reference to the Portuguese name for Trousseau – Bastardo .
A couple of top-end Fumey-Chatelain whites were exciting too, the Chardonnay Le Zouave 2015 from a selection of their best vineyards, and the aromatic Savagnin Rose 2018. This Savagnin variation is the same as Klevener de Heiligenstein in Alsace, and I have also tasted an exciting one made by Jeff Vejr of Golden Cluster in Oregon. This may be the same as what is known as Savagnin Muscaté down in southern Jura as produced by Domaine des Marnes Blanches.
Marin made just one barrel from their two rows of Savagnin Rose vines. I bought two bottles and could not resist opening one with friends a few days later, a really intense, exotic wine, well balanced but zinging with acidity. I hope to resist the second bottle for a while as it will certainly age well. This is an estate to watch.
A tale from Jacques Puffeney Before I left Saint-Laurent, I went to see Jacques, who I had last seen some years ago. Although his final vintage for most of his wines was 2014, he had kept back some of his best and oldest Trousseau vines and I was delighted to try with him the gorgeous 2017. This was his very last vintage before passing on these vines to Domaine du Pélican, who had already taken on the rest of his vineyards.
As we chatted I also tasted three Vins Jaune vintages: his 2013, just bottled in June, although originally planned for April bottling, a Jaune with the acid kick to allow it to age particularly well; the 2012, very good too, a vintage that offered quantity and quality; and a treat – the fabulous 2005 vintage, possibly the best this century.
I asked Jacques to tell me about his earliest encounter with his New York-based US importer Neal Rosenthal. Although Jacques’ wines were not the only ones to be in the US in the late 1990s, his wines, especially the reds, really did much to spark the interest in Jura wines in the US.
Jacques told me how Neal had arrived one morning in the middle of harvest in 1996 and how he told him that he was too busy looking after the press to give Neal a tasting. Eventually Neal persuaded Jacques to receive him for a quick tasting at the end of the day; in the meantime, apparently Neal made a quick trip to Alsace and back (about a 5-hour round trip with a tasting in the middle, presumably). Jacques didn’t think much would come of Neal’s visit, but a few weeks later received an order from Neal to ship 2,000 bottles to the US! This was some order – later he regularly shipped 10,000 bottles per year.
And, for the record, Jacques and Neal share the same birthday and birth year, something they only discovered a few years into their working relationship – they’ve been friends ever since and celebrated their 70th together at Maison Jeunet in Arbois. These men are two wine legends.
More posts are to come about both big and small producers that I’ve revisited or tasted with recently, and in the meantime, I hope you are able to enjoy some Jura wines wherever you are. And tell your friends, the best place to purchase my book is still direct from my Wine Travel Media site for worldwide delivery, available in print or Epub digital form.
The Jura wine world has certainly not stood still in any way since I last wrote on this blog. New vignerons have emerged, almost all of them choosing to work organically; wineries have changed hands; newer producers have evolved and there have been mixed vintage fortunes, as so often.
Forgive me that this blog site is so out-of-date and hard to read on portable devices. I will consider how to change this with minimal time and impact, or transfer everything to my main Wine Travel Media site. If anyone wishes to help me on this, contact me privately. Meantime, please read on…
At the end of March I was due to attend Le Nez dans le Vert, Jura’s massive organic wine tasting show, to catch up, but that was cancelled. My absence here, many of you will already be aware, has all to do with dealing with personal loss (my partner Brett Jones sadly died in April 2018) and hard work towards personal achievement, with the writing and publication last July of my second book, Wines of the French Alps.
The publication of my new book and the glowing reviews also gave a welcome boost to sales of the Jura Wine book meaning I needed to do a fourth printing. Just before the covid-19 crisis struck, I received delivery, allowing me to continuing fulfilling orders from my website for despatch around the world.
I have done some other work during lockdown too (while based fortunately at my French mountain base), in particular making the ePub versions (for iPad, iPhone and many other readers) of both books available to buy from my own website. Now you can buy digital versions direct, with a special discounted price for buying both together, and this helps me, as it does if you purchase the print books direct from me.
Webinars and Interviews
Many of you may be aware that the prestigious London wine club 67 Pall Mall, with wine director Ronan Sayburn MS, has been conducting an incredible series of online masterclasses all of which have been recorded. Wine samples have been available to go along with these webinars for delivery in the UK and Europe. I was proud to be asked to conduct a few.
The recording of the #67fromhome masterclass I did in April provides a good overview of the Jura Wine region for those in need of revision – don’t worry if you don’t have the six wines to hand, it stands alone as an educational webinar with or without the wines.
My excitement is mounting for my next masterclass for 67 Pall Mall, which will be in interview form with the Burgundian owners of the biodynamic estate Domaine du Pélican, founded in 2012. You have just a few more days to buy the wine samples and taste along, but in any case do watch along live so that you can ask questions next Friday 3 July,the session will also be available as a video recording later.
The Pelican Story
The pelican is the symbol of the goregous little Jura town of Arbois. Below is the first paragraph of my Domaine du Pélican profile in my book, published in 2014. The estate was founded by Guillaume, Marquis d’Angerville of the biodynamically-run Volnay estate, together with his long-term estate manager, François Duvivier
With the creation in 2012 of the most significant new estate in Arbois for some years, it seems apt that its name and label feature a pelican. It is said that a pelican was brought to Arbois by Maximilian of Hapsburg in the 15th century as it was a favourite creature of his wife, Marie de Bourgogne. Unfortunately the bird died, but as a recognized Christian symbol of the time the town of Arbois took it on as its town crest. The image shows the pelican nourishing its young from its heart. It seems amazing that no wine estate had ever used the pelican name and that it has taken an outsider – it was the domaine’s co-owner François Duvivier’s idea – to rectify this.
Domaine du Pélican began with the 2012 vintage from just 5ha of biodynamic vineyards, which they had taken over from Château de Chavanes in Montigny-les-Arsures. The domaine also acquired another amazing site in Arbois, Grand Curoulet, which had been farmed (or rather hardly farmed at all) by natural wine producer Jean-Marc Brignot and before that by Robert Aviet, a well-known Arbois vigneron who had retired before I started visiting the area. Unfortunately, it all had to be replanted. Later, in December 2014, Pélican took over most of Jacques Puffeney’s vineyards on his retirement. In the masterclass we will talk more about these vineyard sites and working biodynamically in the Jura.
Vintage 2018 was an amazingly good one for Domaine du Pélican and the rest of the region. There was huge relief that there was a good quantity of healthy grapes across all the varieties – in fact they were worried the yields were almost too high. But results are superb, and Pélican decided to take the opportunity to extend its small range to single include parcel/terroir wines and this has added a new dimension to the range.
If you are subscriber to Jancis Robinson’s website (and if not, you can take out an inexpensive trial subscription), you will find detailed tasting notes from Julia Harding MW of the whole of Pélican’s 2018 range when the wines were released in London (sadly I was not at the tasting). It is at the bottom of a report on Jura, Savoie and Bugey wines presented in London in March by the importer Vine Trail (more in a future post).
On a very brief visit to Pélican during my first wine sortie out of lockdown a couple of weeks ago, I met with François Duvivier, and was able to tour the building site of the domaine’s new winery being constructed on the site of the Le Clos vineyard parcel. It will be ready to receive the 2020 wines in barrel, but not vinify them. For now, they still use the Château de Chavanes original winery, where I had a quick taste of the 2019 wines from barrels. The quality looks excellent, but sadly Pélican, as others in the Jura, suffered greatly from a combination of some frost damage and in particular summer drought conditions, which reduced quantity dramatically.
Restaurant changes and more
While I was in Arbois, I had the chance to go to two restaurants – the first restaurant visits since lockdown (please don’t get too jealous). François Duvivier kindly took me to the vignerons’ favourite lunch place – Bistrot des Claquets and it was a Wednesday. The bistrot only ever has one fixed choice meal, changing each day, and in a new initiative it is fully vegetarian on Wednesdays – the lunch was as filling and tasty as ever. The restaurant and bar, which was up for sale, has an assured future now as it has just been taken over by Rachel Gariglio, who is a familiar face, as she has been working there for eight years. Afficionados will be pleased to hear that apart from vegetarian Wednesdays, little is likely to change, and Rachel is a big fan of the local organic and natural wines.
I’ve known this sulphur-free Ploussard from Domane de la Tournelle since the 2003 vintage. It hits the spot.
In the evening, with a friend, we went just across the road to Le Bistronome, which was taken over in March 2019, by Lisa and Jérôme, formerly in the kitchen of the famous two-star Michelin restaurant in Arbois, Maison Jeunet. I had heard several good reports and was excited to try it, especially as I know the restaurant building, which is always enjoyable to eat in, overlooking the cute Cuisance river.
This was the first week that the Bistronome had re-opened since France allowed restaurants to open again, and there was strict adherence to the rules of wearing masks on entering, with sanitizer available and a choice of receiving the proper menus or using a QR code to access them on the website. We had the incredibly reasonably-priced and quite delicious and well-presented three-course menu of the day – the à la carte menu looked enticing too.
As for Le Bistronome’s wine list, it offers a mouth-watering, wide selection of all Jura wine styles. What to choose was such a dilemma as we needed a wine to go with everything and I was spoilt for choice. I plumped for the Ploussard I’ve loved for so many years, but hadn’t tried for ages: l’uva from Domaine de la Tournelle 2018, vinified just 100 meters away from the restaurant, hit the spot so perfectly, I was falling back in love with the Jura all over again.
Please do join the Domaine du Pélican masterclass next week. And look out for at least one more blog post here in the next couple of weeks featuring an amazing and original map. I will also share news on two newer Jura organic vignerons, Bruno Bienaimé and (the longer-established) Philippe Châtillon, not featured in my book, plus a revisit to a couple of important domaines, in the Arbois area, with recent changes in management.
Wink has been a writer and educator on wine for many years. Living partly in the French Alps, only a couple of hours from the Jura region, she has written about the region's wine, food and tourism for many international magazines and books. In 2014 she self-published her first book Jura Wine which is the definitive guide in English to the wines of the region.
For more about this blog, read the About page.
To contact Wink, email wink[at]winklorch.com
Jura Wine, Food and Travel 