JURA

WINE

with local food and travel tips

WINK LORCH

First published in Great Britain in 2014 by Wine Travel Media

174 Basin Approach, London, E14 7JS

Web: winetravelmedia.com

Copyright © Wink Lorch 2014

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, distributed or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording or other electronic or mechanical methods, without the prior written permission of the publisher.

ISBN: 978-0-9928331-1-4 (ePub)

978-0-9928331-2-1 (mobi)

Main photography: Mick Rock, Xavier Servolle, Brett Jones

Designer: JD Smith

Editor and indexer: Patricia Carroll

Editorial assistant: Brett Jones

Cartographer: Quentin Sadler

Ebook formatting: EBooks by Design

Overleaf: The town of Arbois viewed from the Curon vineyard.

About the Author

Wink Lorch has worked in the world of wine all her adult life and divides her time between London and the French Alps. In the past two decades she has worked as a freelance wine communicator, writing, teaching and presenting tastings. A founder and former chair of the Association of Wine Educators and a member of the Circle of Wine Writers, Wink has contributed to books by Jancis Robinson, Tom Stevenson and Oz Clarke and has written for numerous magazines. She is the founder of Wine Travel Guides.

Wink first spent a day tasting wine in the Jura in 2000 and since then she has toured the region regularly, visiting and tasting with nearly 100 wine producers. Over the past few years she has become the person who knows most about Jura wines and producers outside France. Wine has always fascinated Wink and sharing the story of the diverse wine styles and producers of the tiny Jura wine region has presented her with a challenge that she has relished. Wink’s Jura blog is at jurawine.co.uk and her main site is winetravelmedia.com.

CONTENTS

FOREWORD by Raymond Blanc OBE

INTRODUCTION

Author’s acknowledgements

PART 1 ALL ABOUT THE WINES

The wine region in context

The appellations

The terroir – geology, soil types and climate

Grape varieties

Growing the grapes

How the wines are made and how they taste

PART 2 HISTORY

The story of the wine region

The people who made a difference

PART 3 PLACES AND PEOPLE – THE WINE PRODUCERS

Jura’s wine producers

Around Arbois

Around Poligny

Château-Chalon, the Upper Seille and L’Etoile

Around Lons-le-Saunier

Sud Revermont

Other wines of Franche-Comté

The future for Jura wine producers

PART 4 ENJOYING THE WINES AND THE LOCAL FOOD

Food and drink specialities

Serving Jura wines

Visiting the region

APPENDICES

1 Essential rules for the appellations (AOC)

2 Abbreviations, conversions and pronunciations

3 Wines inspired by the Jura

4 Glossary

Bibliography

Kickstarter acknowledgements

Image credits

Raymond in the Jura during filming of his BBC2 TV series The Very Hungry Frenchman.

FOREWORD RAYMOND BLANC OBE

You are about to embark on a magnificent journey to a very special place - be sure to pack a wine glass!

The Jura, it has to be said, is not on every traveller’s must-visit list. This is a great shame because it is such a remarkable and stunning part of France. Those who visit tend to return.

I grew up in the village of Saône. The nearest town is Besançon, once a Roman city. The rugged, magnificent Jura Mountains are close by and the landscape is dramatic. Huge mountains are layered with forests of épicéas (spruce trees) that are used to smoke the ham and the saucisse de Morteau, and provide the casing of the Mont d’Or cheese. Montbeliarde cows dot the mountainside and give their milk to create the famous local cheeses, such as Comté, Mont d’Or and many others.

During school holidays I’d go to summer camp in the mountains. The camp was in a forest of pines and was a place of absolute wonderment for my young mind. Streams and rivers gushed from the chalky mountains above, and waterfalls cascaded into large pools. The pools were an ice-cold bath for me but they were perfect for trout. I tried (without success) to learn the art of catching trout by hand, which starts with a gentle tickle of the underbelly of the fish. This is where we would also bathe. The trout of the Jura is divine upon a plate, and is in harmony on the palate when accompanied by an Arbois Chardonnay.

The Jura is one of the most unspoilt regions of France and one of our most ancient wine regions. We have our own route du vin which leads to the traveller’s discovery of the most beautiful villages and towns such as Arbois, Poligny and Château-Chalon.

Along the way you will savour the world-beating, harmonious match of Vin Jaune with Comté and, of course, the morels. Bon appetit.

Above: At Le Manoir aux Quat’Saisons.

Jura Wine is written lovingly, and is a significant literary homage to one of my passions. Wink Lorch has devoted more than a decade of her life to its making, and I raise a glass to her.

That decade has not been dull, not one moment of it. Wink has been at the wine festivals; she has visited scores of wine producers - celebrated experts in their craft - and she has listened and learned, and tasted and then tasted once more, with a piece of delicious Comté cheese at her side.

In the pages that follow she shares her knowledge of the terroir and reveals the vinous secrets of Château-Chalon, Vin Jaune, Vin de Faille, Savagnin, Poulsard and Trousseau, and even Chardonnay and Pinot Noir.

Oh, how I wish I could have joined Wink on her travels, for this is my home, my region. The landscapes were the colourful backdrop to my childhood. This is where I fell in love with food and the perfect wine to go with it. I did not join Wink but this book does the trick - I feel as if I am there, at her side in the Jura.

Wink, why don’t you pour while I fry the trout in a hot pan of foaming butter?

Born in Besançon, France, in 1949, Raymond Blanc is acknowledged as one of the finest chefs in the world, despite never having been formally trained. He opened his first UK restaurant, Les Quat’Saisons, in Oxford at the age of 28 and created the hotel and restaurant Le Manoir aux Quat’Saisons, synonymous with fine dining and hospitality, in 1984. The restaurant has held two Michelin stars for 30 years.

With vigneron Jacques Puffeney on a winter’s day in Montigny-ies-Arsures.

INTRODUCTION

Like many wine students in the 1980s I was dimly aware of the Jura wine region and Vin Jaune. I probably first tasted Vin Jaune when I visited Henri Maire in the early 1980s, but I confess to remembering little except the impressive tasting room. I was doing a whirlwind tour of French wine regions at the time and suffering from information overload.

In the 1990s I started spending part of my year living in the mountains of Haute-Savoie, where I soon discovered Savoie wines and was keen to write about them. However, at that time Savoie was always linked with the Jura. My first serious commission arrived at the end of 1999, when I was asked to contribute a short chapter on the wines of Savoie, Bugey and the Jura to The global encyclopaedia of wine, edited in Australia by Peter Forrestal. How could I refuse?

And so it was that in January 2000 I drove through the snow from Haute-Savoie to the Jura and spent a night in a hotel near Poligny, the only guest there. Dining alone, I chose a half-bottle of a mysterious local white to go with a classic main course of trout in a Vin Jaune and cream sauce. The wine was weird - just as the hotel owner, doubling as waiter, had warned me. The next day I made my first serious visit to discover Jura wines in situ. In the course of a long day I visited each of the producer presidents of the four Appellation Contrôlée areas of the Jura. I started in the south with Alain Baud in AOC Côtes du Jura and could not have found a better or more patient teacher. Looking back at my notes, it is extraordinary how much information I garnered from him in less than two hours, tasting seven wines before 11am. After 20 years of studying wine, in the Jura I found that there was so much more to learn. That was the real start of my Jura journey and two years later, researching for my chapter in Tom Stevenson’s Wine Report, I began to make my first exciting discoveries of Savagnin ouillé, Trousseau and extraordinary Chardonnays.

This book aims to fill a big information gap about Jura wines, the region they come from and the people who make them. Even up-to-date texts in French are hard to come by. Yet, having written this book, some things still remain a mystery in the Jura and who doesn’t enjoy a mystery story? To me it remains completely fascinating that the smallest wine region of France is at once so intriguing and so completely different from any other wine region.

There seems to be a thirst among wine drinkers around the world, not only for Jura wines but also for the story behind them. When I began this project and decided that I would self-publish, my plan was loose - I did not expect to end up writing such a detailed book. This tiny wine region of France produces only 0.2% of the country’s wines, yet there is so much to discover and explain. I hope you find enough to educate and inspire you about Jura wines and their makers.

Navigating the book

The book is divided into four main parts, starting with ‘All about the wine’ and continuing with ‘History’. It is traditional to begin regional wine books with the history, but as so much Jura wine history is related to the history of Vin Jaune, the history is hard to appreciate unless you already know something about this wine and others in the Jura and how they are made. Unless you already know the fundamentals about Jura wines I strongly suggest reading about the wines first in Part 1, which is effectively the textbook part of the book. This is where you will find out about the AOCs, the climate, geology, grape varieties, viticulture, winemaking methods and much more.

One hundred producers are profiled in Part 3 ‘Places and people - the wine producers’. As well as their contact details you will find these producers’ stories, together with information about how they work in their vineyards and make their wines. I believe that getting to know the people is the best way to know their wines, even before you taste them. Many European wine regions have complications - the intricate patterns of premier and grand cru vineyards in Burgundy or their equivalents in Piedmont, for example, or the plethora of German wine categories. As a wine lover you might not remember all the names of German Prädikats or Burgundy lieux dits, but you do tend to know what style of wine to expect. In the Jura that is far from the case. A range of 15 wines, each one quite different in terms of how it is made, is common in the Jura and 20-30 wines even in a small producer’s range is not unusual. As these are ever-changing I have not listed each producer’s wines, but there is an overview of the range in every profile, with an indication of the wines I believe to be the most successful.

In Part 3 you will also find out more about the pretty wine towns and villages that dot each area of the Jura wine region. Each area has its own history and character, and of course the terroir is different too. For the most opinionated part of the book, read the last chapter of Part 3 about the future for the region.

By the banks of the River Cuisance in Arbois with photographer Mick Rock, who has just taken the photograph above left, looking towards the Eglise St-Just.

Most Jura wines are better drunk with food and, if you have the chance to travel to the region, you will find almost nothing but regional food in the restaurants. Part 4, ‘Enjoying the wines and the local food’, gives an overview of the cheeses, most notably the famous Comté, so delicious paired with Vin Jaune, along with smoked sausages, Bresse chicken and other intriguing drinks, notably absinthe. This part also discusses how to serve the wines - some of the unusual Jura wine styles need to be handled differently from other wines. For those planning a visit to the region there is a short travel guide. Appendices follow, with AOC details and a glance at some wines made elsewhere inspired by the Jura. For reference there is a detailed glossary plus a guide to pronouncing all those key Jura words, from Jura itself to Savagnin, ouillé, Vin Jaune (of course) and many more.

The text has been hugely enhanced by the photographs and images - I chose each one to add something to the understanding of the region. The maps - incredibly hard to produce as source material is almost impossible to find - are the most detailed maps available for the Jura at present.

Omissions are inevitable as this tiny region offers such diversity, but there is more crammed into this one book, taking in all aspects of the wine region, than you will find anywhere else in any language. Any errors are my responsibility. If you do find an error, please contact me at wink@winetravelmedia.com.

This book could not have been written or published without the generous assistance of a large number of people to whom I give my heartfelt thanks. May I apologise now to anyone I have omitted.

Author’s acknowledgements

First, those who supported the project financially through the Kickstarter campaign must be thanked for their faith in the project, which made me doubly certain that this book had to be written. They are listed separately here.

Specific individuals who helped to answer questions or check text are as follows:

For Part 1 (‘All about the wines’): Michel Campy, Daniel Cousin and Gaël Delorme of Société de Viticulture du Jura, Professor Alex Maltman, José Vouillamoz and Monty Waldin. For Part 2 (‘History’): Bernard Amiens, Mariëlla Beukers, Professor Kathleen Burk, Pierre Chevrier, Michel Converset, Roger Gibey, Jean-Paul Jeunet, Pierre Overnoy and Marie-Christine Tarby. Also to World of Fine Wine (WFW) for permission to use text first published in WFW Issue 35, 2012. For Part 3 (‘Places and people’): all the producers profiled. For Part 4 (‘Enjoying the wine and the local food’): Sue Style. For the appendices: Amanda Regan.

For general research help and image sourcing: Jean Berthet-Bondet, Christophe Botté and Sylvie Cambray of Fruitière Vinicole d’Arbois, Philippe Bruniaux, Caroline Campalto, Laurent Courtial and Aurélie Dupas of Rouge Granit, Baudoin de Chassey of Comité Interprofessionnel des Vins du Jura, Olivier Grosjean, Xavier Guillaume, Caroline and Patrice Hughes-Béguet, Daniel Keller, Christophe Menozzi, Stéphane Planche, Jennifer Russell, Xavier Servolle and Stéphane Tissot.

For help and encouragement on self-publishing and with the Kickstarter campaign: Susanna Forbes, Fiona Holman, Steve de Long (on whose original design the front cover of the book is based), Rob Lorch, Kathryn McWhirter, Will Mattos, Charles Metcalfe, Joëlle Nebbe-Mornod, Lyn Parry, Tom Stevenson and Arnold Waldstein, along with other wine bloggers on the Kickstarter videos. I also thank Raymond Blanc OBE for writing the foreword, as well as Jancis Robinson MW, OBE and Gerard Basset MS, MW, OBE for their kind comments endorsing the book.

Finally, my biggest thanks of all is reserved for those who in the past year have worked so tirelessly and patiently on this book, giving me unquestioned support whenever I needed it. Jura Wine is their book too. These are photographer Mick Rock and his wife Annie, editor Patricia Carroll, designer Jane Dixon-Smith and cartographer Quentin Sadler. And, by my side throughout this project, encouraging me always has been my partner Brett Jones, who made my travels, researches, self-publishing traumas and writing so much easier than they might have been.

Next page: Sunset with west- and southwest-facing vines below Cháteau-Chalon and Menétru-le-Vignoble.

Above: About 400km or 250 miles southeast of Paris, the Jura wine region lies southwest of Alsace, east of Burgundy and north of the Savoie and Bugey wine regions. On the slopes below the First Plateau of the Jura Mountains, the vineyards are at altitudes similar to those in Burgundy and Alsace.

THE WINE REGION IN CONTEXT

The name ‘Jura’ is not only the name of the French department or political division in which the Jura wine region is wholly situated; it is also the name of the mountain range that divides France from Switzerland, northwest of the Alps. The Jura wine region of France is located on the lower foothills of the western slopes of the Jura Mountains in eastern France, just 80km due east of the Côte de Beaune in Burgundy, easily accessible from Dijon, Lyon or Geneva.

The Swiss city of Geneva lies at the southern end of the Jura Mountains, which stretch up through the canton of Bern almost to Basel at their northern reaches. Switzerland also has ‘Jura wines’, with a small production in the canton of the same name, but in a wider sense the Swiss wines of the canton of Neuchâtel are usually considered to be from the Jura, as the vineyards lie on the eastern foothills. Neither has much in common with French Jura wines. Another well-known drink-related Jura appears miles away - on the island of Jura in Scotland, which produces fine malt whisky, but there is no connection, even geologically. The word ‘Jurassic’ is famous throughout the world as the name for the period of geological time between 200 million and 145 million years ago. The name reflects the fact that rocks of this age were first recognized in the Jura Mountains and the Jurassic period was named after them. It is believed that the name ‘Jura’ derives from Celtic languages - Jor, later transformed into Joris by the Romans, the Latin word for ‘forest’ or ‘land of forests’.

The Jura department is within the greater political region of Franche-Comté and this book covers food specialities from the whole Franche-Comté region, rather than simply the Jura, and also includes a small section under producers discussing the few wines that are produced in the departments of Doubs and Haute-Saône to the north of the Jura, classified as Indication Géographique Protégé (IGP) Franche-Comté. Franche-Comté borders the region of Burgundy (Bourgogne) to its northwest and Rhône-Alpes to the south and southwest. To the east is Switzerland. Travel guides in English tend to focus on the name ‘Jura’ rather than ‘Franche-Comté’, even if they cover the whole region.

The Jura vineyard region

Today’s vineyard area of around 2,100ha (about 0.3% of the total vineyards in France) is a fraction of that which existed in the 19th century, when it stretched further north into the Doubs and Haute-Saône departments and further south towards Bourg-en-Bresse. Although the vineyards are much more scattered in certain sectors than formerly, the area covered west-east, which reaches 5km at most, has shrunk less, for the simple reason that the vine can thrive only in certain conditions. Hence today’s vineyards run for roughly 80km from Salins-les-Bains to south of Lons-le-Saunier, in a northeast to southwest strip between the Premier Plateau or First Plateau of the Jura Mountains to the east and the marshy Bresse plain to the west. This area is also known as the Revermont - the main part, sometimes called the Nord Revermont, is north of Lons-le-Saunier, and the smaller part, known as the Sud Revermont, lies to the south of Lons.

North of the Poligny reculée, Montbéliarde cows, whose milk is used for Comté cheese, graze on the flatland. The vineyards lie on the western slopes below the forest and the limestone cliff.

Unlike many wine regions, rivers are not a particularly significant influence on wine in the Jura, yet, as in Alpine regions, they gave rise to many industries that have kept the region economically alive - the salt, forestry and precision instrument industries in particular. The department of Jura is in the Rhône river catchment area and the most important Saône and Doubs rivers are tributaries of the Rhône. The Rhône au Rhin canal and the Doubs river run through the attractive town of Dole and its tributaries include the Loue, which was important historically for the salt industry. Tributaries of the Loue include the wonderfully named Furieuse running through Salins-les-Bains and the pretty Cuisance river tumbles through the town of Arbois. The gentle Seille river, which runs through the wine villages near Château-Chalon and also through Arlay, is a tributary of the Saône and this attractive area is known as the Haute Seille. Most of these rivers have their sources in the Jura’s distinctive geological reculées (blind or steephead valleys). The Jura is also known for its lake district, just southeast of the wine region, consisting of both natural and man-made lakes created mostly for the hydro-electric industry, another significant industry in the Jura, but now important for tourism.

Altitude

Contrary to popular belief, the Jura can hardly be regarded as a ‘mountain vineyard’ even if its situation on the foothills of the Jura Mountains and the considerable steepness of several vineyards suggest it should be. Vineyard altitudes vary from around 220m up to 450m, more or less the same as the Alsace vineyards that lie on the Vosges foothills, and comparable with the finest premier and grand cru vineyards of the Côte d’Or in Burgundy at between 250m and 340m, which is the altitude at which the majority of Jura vineyards are situated.

The Jura wine region includes more than 100 communes (in France each commune - a town or village - has its own administration with a mayor), all designated in the appellation rules, but only four real towns. From north to south these are the spa town Salins-les-Bains (often simply Salins); the real wine capital and home to Pasteur, Arbois; the home of Comté cheese, Poligny, an important thoroughfare to the Alps, and the departmental capital Lons-le-Saunier (simply Lons). To the north the attractive Jura town of Dole, once the capital of Franche-Comté (today the capital is Besançon in the Doubs department), is actually more populous than Lons and lies just to the north of today’s wine region; in former times there were many vineyards in the so-called Pays Dolois or countryside surrounding the town, as well as around Besançon.

A snapshot of the wines

Bear in mind that the Jura wine region is only just larger than Margaux in Bordeaux and less than half of the whole of the Chablis area. Yet in both these regions only one style of wine is made - in the Jura almost every colour and style of wine is made, hence complications abound, but that is what makes the region’s wines so endlessly fascinating. The chapters following in this part of the book will examine in detail all the aspects that Jura producers work with to make their wines: the appellation rules, the terroir, the grape varieties, the ways the grapes are grown and, finally, how the wines are made. This final chapter also attempts to describe how the myriad wine styles taste. To help you to understand various references in these chapters as you dip in and out, here is a summary.

Appellations: One regional appellation - Côtes du Jura, with three more specific geographical appellations: Arbois, L’Etoile and Château-Chalon. Two further appellations for Crémant du Jura sparkling wines and Macvin du Jura fortified wine.

Terroir: Vineyards primarily on the west-facing foothills of the Jura Mountains’ Premier Plateau, on varied soils dominated by limestone and marl (clay-limestone) of varying colours. The climate is classified as northern semi-continental, with cold winters, warm summers and high rainfall.

Grape varieties: Two white varieties, Chardonnay and Savagnin, and three red varieties, Poulsard (or Ploussard), Pinot Noir and Trousseau, are permitted for AOC wines.

The wines: Dry whites (which may be oxidative, aged under yeast or classic), dry roses and light reds are backed up by the so-called specialities, Crémant du Jura and other sparkling wines, Vin Jaune, Vin de Paille, Macvin and other liqueur wines.

How to get there

Travel connections to the Jura are easy by road. The A39 motorway runs just to the west of the vineyards and boasts two of the most interesting service stations I know in France. At the Aire du Jura you can visit a small museum with regularly changing locally inspired exhibitions and purchase decent regional food and wine in the shop. At the Aire du Poulet de Bresse you can admire the distinctive metal chicken sculpture outside.

By train, the high-speed TGV from Paris and elsewhere stops at Dole in the north and Bourg-en-Bresse to the south of the Jura. There are connections to both Lons-le-Saunier and Arbois but trains are infrequent. The Jura has its own small airport at Dole with some flights to England and elsewhere, but the nearest large airports are Geneva in Switzerland and Lyon St-Exupéry to the south, both around two hours’ drive.

THE APPELLATIONS

There are four main geographical appellations in the Jura, all originally ratified in 1936 and 1937, the first years that the French Appellation d’Origine Contrôlée (AOC) rules came into force. In addition there are two appellations for specific wine types that were awarded later. All French wine AOCs have been incorporated into the European Designated Protection of Origin (DPO) system for food and drink, which in French is called Appellation d’Origine Protégée (AOP). The French wine industry has been allowed to retain AOC as a designation, but producers may use AOP if they wish. As there has been much confusion about this over the past few years, a few producers have adopted AOP on their labels, but most use AOC. This book will refer to AOC. An abbreviated version of the rules for each of these AOCs is included in the appendices.

The only permitted grape varieties for the AOCs in the Jura are Savagnin and Chardonnay (white) and Poulsard, Trousseau and Pinot Noir (red).

About 90% of wines from the Jura wine region are classified as AOC. he majority of those that are not AOC are from the relatively large number of privately owned vineyards in the region. Wines from outside the official Jura AOC geographical boundaries are labelled Indication Géographique Protégé (IGP), the European protection of origin standard that replaced the Vin de Pays category in France in 2009. The generic Vin de France category (previously Vin de Table) is also used for certain wines.

Detailed rules are included in Appendix 1, but the essentials are outlined here.

The decree for AOC Arbois wines in 1936 included the vineyards of Montigny-les-Arsures within the appellation.

Above: The areas shown on the map indicating the extent of the various Jura AOCs are theoretical. Less than 2,000ha out of 11,000ha of AOC-designated land are actually planted.

AOC Côtes du Jura

Côtes du Jura is a regional AOC encompassing the whole of the Jura wine region, including the more specific village AOCs of Arbois, L’Etoile and Château-Chalon. In practice AOC Côtes du Jura is used mainly for wines from areas outside the larger Arbois AOC, including a small area north of Arbois between Champagne-sur-Loue on the border of the Doubs department and Salins-les-Bains, and the larger area south of Pupillin to Lons-le-Saunier and beyond in the Sud Revermont. The decree was ratified in 1937, one of the first AOCs in France to be designated. Even more so than the Arbois AOC, the proposed area originally planned would have allowed for many more hectares than are actually planted at present. Today it is hard to imagine what it would look like if the whole area was planted, but, with planting restrictions in force in Europe, any dramatic expansion towards its former glory is unlikely to happen. Along with wines from around the towns of Poligny and Lons-le-Saunier, well-known Côtes du Jura wine villages include Passenans, Voiteur, Le Vernois, Lavigny, Arlay, Gevingey and Rotalier.

All the Jura colours and styles of still wine may be made, including Vin Jaune and Vin de Paille, although white wines predominate under this AOC label.

In 2013 the region commissioned roadside signs for each of the four geographical AOCs.

AOC Arbois and AOC Arbois-Pupillin

Arbois was awarded its AOC in 1936 and is, in practice, the largest appellation in the Jura. The rules have changed several times, but the area has remained more or less the same, covering much of the northern part of the Jura wine region around the town of Arbois, including the key wine villages of Montigny-les-Arsures and Pupillin. Since 1970 Pupillin has been entitled to its own appellation, Arbois-Pupillin, and growers in the Pupillin vineyards may choose which AOC to use, Arbois or Arbois-Pupillin.

As in Côtes du Jura, all the Jura colours and styles of still wine may be made, but 70% of the Jura’s red wines are produced under the Arbois AOC Technically growers in the Arbois AOC are allowed to use the Côtes du Jura appellation too, but this happens only if a producer owns vineyards in both appellations and wants to make a wine blended from both of them.

AOC Château-Chalon

The illustrious Château-Chalon appellation was awarded just a couple of weeks after that of Arbois in 1936. It is one of the most unusual AOCs in France. It is applicable to only one highly individual style of wine, Vin Jaune, and on paper it is also one of the most strictly monitored, with three stages of control: at the vineyards pre-harvest; as so-called ‘base wine’ before putting into barrel; and as Vin Jaune Château-Chalon before bottling. The AOC also includes vineyards in the nearby villages ofDomblans, Menétru-le-Vignoble and Nevy-sur-Seille, but it depends greatly in all four villages on the particular exposition and soil whether the vineyards are categorized as Château-Chalon or Côtes du Jura. The former, currently with around 50ha of a potential 85ha planted, is of course almost all planted to Savagnin for Vin Jaune; the latter is mostly planted to Chardonnay. Savagnin deemed not good enough to withstand the ageing requirements for Vin Jaune must be sold as AOC Côtes du Jura, as are all wines from other grape varieties.

The first AOC?

Arbois often claims to be the first AOC awarded in France in 1936. As far as I can tell, starting with an ‘A’ is all that can substantiate the claim that should more accurately be ‘one of the first AOCs in France’. For the record, the first six AOCs in France were created on the same day, 15 May 1936, and were Arbois, Cassis, Châteauneuf-du-Pape, Cognac, Monbazillac and Tavel. It is, however, a credit to the historical importance of the quality of the wines of Arbois that it was in that earliest group.

AOC L’Etoile

The L’Etoile appellation includes vineyards around the village of L’Etoile and three neighbouring villages. The original AOC was granted in 1937.

Only white wines may be made under the L’Etoile AOC, but this includes Vin Jaune and Vin de Paille, and the latter may include red grapes. Red or rosé wines made in this geographical area must be labelled under AOC Côtes du Jura. Traditionally L’Etoile was reputed for its sparkling wines, but since 1995 these have come under the Crémant du Jura AOC.

Château-Chalon’s inspection committee

Château-Chalon is unique among AOCs. In regulations established in 1952 an inspection committee comprised of representatives of the INAO (who control the appellations nationally), the Société de Viticulture du Jura (SVJ), local wine laboratories, producers and négociants visit each parcel of vineyards shortly before harvest. In addition to checking whether there is sufficient sugar in the grapes, they also check how healthy the grapes are and their potential yield. Depending on the results, in extreme circumstances the producers of Château-Chalon may take a decision not to allow a vintage under the AOC - this happened in 1974, 1980, 1984 and 2001. In these years Savagnin from these vineyards had to be sold as AOC Côtes du Jura.

Key AOC rules for Vin Jaune

The rules for Vin Jaune under all the AOCs have changed little over the years and are based on the historical ‘recipe’. The essentials are:

Vin Jaune must be made 100% from the Savagnin grape.

It must not be bottled until December six years after the harvest and must spend at least five years in barrel under a veil of yeast. (Being pedantic, the figure of six years and three months widely quoted as the minimum time a Vin Jaune spends in barrel under yeast is therefore not correct - see ‘Vin Jaune - some secrets revealed’.)

It must be bottled in a clavelin bottle containing 62cl. Other sizes, particularly 37.5cl, may occasionally be seen in non-European countries, which are outside the jurisdiction of the INAO.

It must not be sold before 1 January seven years after the harvest.

Key AOC rules for Vin de Paille

The rules for Vin de Paille under all the AOCs have been altered on several occasions and attract some controversy. There is a great temptation for producers to bend the rules when it comes to minimum/ maximum sugar levels at pressing, oak ageing stipulations, alcohol levels and bottle dates. Increasing numbers of vignerons now produce wines from dried grapes outside these rules and bottle within the Vin de France category. This is a great shame for the region, as this speciality wine is highly valued - in my view the rules should be reviewed again with greater consultation among producers. Essentials for AOC wines are:

Grapes must be hand-harvested.

Only Chardonnay, Savagnin, Poulsard or Trousseau may be used and they must be dried on straw or in boxes, or suspended from rafters, for a minimum of six weeks in a well-ventilated room (fans may be used). No heating is allowed in the room.

The sugar level of the grapes at pressing must be 320-420g/l.

It must not be bottled until November three years after harvest, and must spend at least 18 months in barrel.

The final wine must be a minimum of 14% alcohol (and minimum 19% potential alcohol including the residual sugar). This was reduced from 14.5% in the original AOC rules.

The pie chart represents figures issued by the CIVJ showing producer sales figures for August 2012-July 2013. Sales of Vin Jaune are included in the figures for the AOCs of Arbois, Côtes du Jura and L'Etoile, whereas sales of Vin de Paille are shown separately.

A selection of bottles for sale in Domaine Baud's tasting room and shop. Only the clavelin bottle on the left is enshrined in AOC rules. Its use is obligatory for Vin Jaune, including Château-Chalon.

AOC Crémant du Jura

One of the seven Crémant AOCs in France (possibly soon to be eight, with the expected addition of Savoie from 2015), the Jura joined the ranks in 1995 and follows the same basic production rules as the others. These include hand-harvesting, regulations for the types of press used, use of the traditional method with a minimum of nine months in contact with the second fermentation lees before disgorgement, and no sales allowed before 12 months after bottling.

The area covered is the same as for AOC Côtes du Jura. All five Jura grape varieties can be used for the base wine, but for white Crémant du Jura there must be a minimum of 70% Chardonnay, Pinot Noir and/or Trousseau, and for rosés a minimum of 50% red grapes. This means that Savagnin can never be more than 30% of the blend for white Crémant, which seems short-sighted considering the interesting quality potential and individuality of the grape.

AOC Macvin du Jura

Macvin du Jura is a ‘liqueur wine’, or fortified wine, which can be white, red or rosé. It was given its own AOC in 1991 and may be made from the juice or must of any of the five Jura grapes grown in the same area as the regional Côtes du Jura AOC.

Vins de Liqueur

Macvin is one of only three Vins de Liqueur to be given an AOC in France, along with Pineau des Charentes (grape juice with Cognac) and Floe de Gascogne (grape juice with Armagnac). However, it is the only one that must be made with spirit distilled from grape marc rather than spirit distilled from wine. Outside the AOC rules there are several fortified wines made in the Jura labelled simply ‘Vin de Liqueur’, either made with Fine, the local brandy, or not aged for long enough to qualify for AOC, or according to age-old local recipes involving cooked and therefore concentrated must, or even with an addition of spices or fruit.

The grape juice (which may have just begun fermentation) is blended with one-third Marc du Jura, which has to have been aged for a minimum of 14 months.The marc (grape spirit) has to originate from the same producer but may be distilled on the premises or elsewhere. The final Macvin blend must be aged in oak for at least ten months, and the alcohol level must be between 16% and 22%.

IGP Franche-Comté

IGP Franche-Comté replaced Vin de Pays Franche-Comté in 2009 and it includes vineyard areas in the departments of Jura, Doubs, Haute-Saône and Territoire de Belfort. Various geographical names may be added when appropriate, including the departmental names of Doubs and Haute-Saône, and certain historic vineyard areas/villages, notably Coteaux de Champlitte and Gy. From 2015 wines from vineyards in villages within the Côtes du Jura AOC will no longer be allowed to use IGP Franche-Comté, so any wines not eligible for AOC must be sold as Vin de France. The category may be used for any colour of still wines, or for sparkling wines designated Vin Mousseux de Qualité. The list of permitted grape varieties includes those for the Jura AOCs and several others. However, rather sadly, few of the ancient Jura varieties are included.

Vin de France

This is technically the lowliest of legal categories for wine produced in France, but it is also the most flexible and, unlike Vin de Table, which it replaced in 2010, wines can state both grape varieties and vintage on the label. It is in use among several Jura producers for the following: Pétillant Naturel sparkling wines; late-harvest sweet wines; sweet wines from dried grapes that do not fit the Vin de Paille rules; wines made from unusual and/or ancient grape varieties; and for wines that fall into no other legal category.

On this label for Vignoble Guillaume in the Haute-Saône department, ‘IGP’ is not spelt out as ‘Indication Géographique Protégé’ - instead the old term ‘Vin de Pays’ is used.

Pupillin vineyard in springtime. Dark clouds threaten another downpour, the vines are just starting their growth, herbicide has been applied under the vine rows and cover crops have been planted between the rows.

THE TERROIR

– GEOLOGY, SOIL TYPES AND CLIMATE

Great, interesting and individual wines are created by vignerons, who through their hard work and skill bring out the best from the meeting of a particular grape variety with a certain terroir. Many consider that the vigneron and even the cellar form part of terroir, but here I refer to terroir as the conditions in which the grapes are grown, shaped by the geology of the place. The vigneron is given no choice but to work with the weather, which might be different every year – note this is entirely different from the climate – and this could certainly be called the luck of the year. However, as everywhere else, the Jura vigneron can to a certain extent prepare for whatever the weather presents, although no vigneron can control it.

Although I do not consider the Jura to be a mountain wine region, this does not mean that the Jura Mountains are not an influence – they are very much part of the terroir here. The vineyard region exists only because of the effects of the younger Alpine range of mountains pushing the Jura mountain range to the west towards the Bresse plain. The soils were created by this geological shift and the climate in the Jura is certainly influenced by the proximity of the mountains.

A little geology

Between about 230 million and 160 million years ago, during the epochs that geologists call the Late Triassic through to the Middle Jurassic, what is now the Jura region lay under the sea. Layers of sediment slowly accumulated, mainly of the marls (limey clays) and (towards the end of this interval) limestones that today give the distinctive soils of the Jura their basis. About 65 million years ago the land started emerging from the sea, and between about 35 million and 20 million years ago the so-called Bresse fault-line created the Bresse basin. This fault also cut out what we now call the reculées, distinctive blind valleys, of which there are several in the Jura wine region, notably those found at Baume-les-Messieurs, Arbois and Poligny.

The Jura’s distinctive, heavy, hard-to-work grey marl soil in the hand of a vigneron.

Some millions of years later, it was the formation of the Alps to the southeast that thrust the much older Jura Mountains several kilometres westwards towards the Bresse plain in a type of slippage that pushed up the sedimentary bedrock to form a series of folded layers, and created a series of plateaux. It was this more than anything else that created the conditions suitable for the vineyards between the mountains and the Bresse plain. Over the millennia that followed erosion during different times of glaciation fashioned the topography still further,