The bottles that define Jura: what they are, who makes them and what they cost.
The iconic bottles that define Jura: what they are, who makes them and what they cost.
Chateau-Chalon is the appellation that makes vin jaune and nothing else. Berthet-Bondet holds Savagnin on Lias marl six years under the yeast veil, never topping up the cask.
Tasting notes: Oxidative and saline, walnut and green apple over high acidity and a long finish. The domaine pours it at 14 degrees with Comte, smoked haddock, snails and morels in cream.
Arbois vin jaune from the Montigny-les-Arsures estate Guillaume d'Angerville began in 2016, casked in spring and then left six years and three months without one topping up.
Tasting notes: Walnut, curry spice and dried apple, full bodied with high acidity and a long close. The estate lists chicken with morels, aged Comte and curried dishes.
Cotes du Jura vin jaune from Pignier at Montaigu, seven years under the veil in cellars that date from the thirteenth century, with no racking and nothing added to the wine.
Tasting notes: A golden robe, a nose of dried fruit and citrus, then walnut and spice over great length. Pignier serves it at 16 degrees with sea fish in white sauce and spiced mushrooms.
Vin jaune from L'Etoile, where Montbourgeau picks Savagnin late off grey and blue Lias marl and leaves it over six years under a fine grey veil, testing the ethanal as it goes.
Tasting notes: Walnut, spice and vanilla in a wine the domaine describes as harmonious and built to keep. Its serving card names chicken with morels, braised ham in cream and Comte.
Two to four years under the veil rather than the seven Bourdy gives its Chateau-Chalon. Same grape, same Demeter-certified cellar, a lighter wine that opens the sous voile style.
Tasting notes: Bright yellow with golden glints, walnut and curry at a lighter 13 percent. Bourdy pours it with Comte and with escargots in garlic and parsley butter.
La Tournelle has topped this Savagnin up since 1994, so no veil forms. It is a different wine from vin jaune rather than a lesser one: taut, mineral, wild yeast and no sulphur.
Tasting notes: Mineral and non-oxidative, medium bodied with high acidity and a long finish. The domaine pours it at 12 degrees with spiced and Asian dishes.
Ouille means the cask is refilled. Credoz keeps 50 year old Savagnin topped up for a year at Chateau-Chalon, so the grape's own fruit stays in front of the wine.
Tasting notes: Golden, with dried fruit and white flowers on the nose and a sweet almond close. None of the nut and curry a veil-aged Savagnin carries.
Chardonnay is planted across every Jura appellation. Les Bruyeres is 0.95 hectare of heavy Trias clay facing due south, vines from 1938 onward, two years on lees in barrel.
Tasting notes: Orchard fruit and spice with a cedar edge from the oak, dense and mineral on the palate with high acidity. Total sulphur held under 40 mg per litre.
A red-stemmed Chardonnay variant that Victor Credoz planted on Chateau-Chalon ground over 70 years ago, kept topped up in cask so its floral aromatics survive intact.
Tasting notes: Pale gold, gentle white-flower aromatics and a round, fresh, persistent palate at 13.5 percent. Credoz serves it chilled with shellfish or salmon tartare.
Pupillin spells Poulsard as Ploussard, from the local word plousse for sloe. The village cooperative bottles it pale and low in tannin at just over eleven euros.
Tasting notes: A strong rose to red in youth turning salmon with age, light bodied, low in tannin, high in acidity, with a delicate bouquet. Poured at 14 to 16 degrees.
Biodynamic Poulsard off red Trias and blue Lias marl at Arbois, three weeks on skins at 28 hectolitres per hectare, then seven months in foudre and stainless steel.
Tasting notes: A fairly pale ruby, with tart red fruit and spice the domaine calls typical of the grape, balanced on freshness and rounded at the finish. Bottled at 11.5 percent.
Trousseau is the firmer of the two Jura reds. Singulier comes off five limestone plots at Montigny-les-Arsures with vines back to 1930 and spends a month on skins.
Tasting notes: Morello cherry, cherry in eau de vie and spice, then a broad palate of ripe fruit and fine tannin. Bottled unfiltered with very low sulphur.
Pinot Noir grows in the Jura alongside Poulsard and Trousseau. En Prele is the organic Passenans parcel that Domaine Grand names first among its own reds.
Tasting notes: Medium bodied with moderate tannin and high acidity. The growers describe the bottling as generous, sensual and nuanced, with more flesh than the Jura norm.
Straw wine. Bunches dry three to four months, then press to ten or fifteen litres of juice per hundred kilos of grapes, which is why so little of it exists.
Tasting notes: Amber, with honey, ripe fruit, candied plum and candied orange over 102 grams of residual sugar and 14.5 percent alcohol. High acidity keeps it moving.
Macvin is a mistelle, not a vin doux naturel: marc stops the must before it can ferment at all. Domaine Grand rests its Chardonnay version in fifty year old Cognac casks.
Tasting notes: Full bodied, low in acidity, long and spirit-marked, with the soft frame the old Cognac wood gives it. The Jura serves Macvin cold, before the meal.
An unusually broad blend for the appellation: half Chardonnay, a tenth Savagnin, and the remaining 40 percent shared between Pinot Noir, Trousseau and Poulsard.
Tasting notes: Light bodied with high acidity and a medium finish, dry in dosage. Rolet serves it cold at around 8 degrees and offers it first as an aperitif.
Peak wine-travel season in Jura is spring through autumn, with harvest the standout window.
classified-growth and grand-cru estates require booking days to weeks ahead; smaller family domaines often take walk-ins midweek.
most estates open 10:00 to 17:00 by appointment, often closed Sunday and Monday.
tipping is not expected at tastings; buying a bottle from the cellar door is the customary thank-you.
If you only open one bottle, open Berthet-Bondet Chateau-Chalon by Domaine Berthet-Bondet. It is the wine most associated with Jura.