Jura Nostalgie
4/29/23 -
We debated using this incredible drawing for our header, only because we didn't have any Vin Jaune in stock, but we actually found a few bottles of Vin Jaune!
While inquiring about Vin Jaune with several importers in the city, we ended up deciding to offer a sampling of what's available in the city at the moment. Not exhaustive at all - surely there's merit for a second "nostalgie" email - here's a rundown of some wines from well known and some lesser known Jura producers.
I wish I could say I tasted these all, but alas I have not. Several years with very limited harvests (when was the last "plentiful" vintage in the Jura?) and relative scarcity means there is often little chance to taste the wines here in New York, let alone in France. My last trip to Arbois was in 2018, and though I do attend industry wine fairs in France each winter, most Jura producers don't attend, as they don't have any wine to sell! I can say that I have enjoyed fine bottles of wine from all of these producers, and have tried to make a selection based on the hits and the curiosities.
Loreline Labord, from Les Granges Paquenesses, has consistenly been producing very approachable and relatively affordable wines. Her topped up (ouillé) Savagnin bottlings show typicity, without thinness or the sense of overdone batonnage (they're not too creamy or fat). Her reds are balanced, very rarely reductive, and overall quite charming, perhaps the best choice for introducing a newcomer to the red cepages of the Jura.
Ludovic Bindernagel, aka Lulu Vigneron, is an old Chambers Street fave. I was first introduced to the wines by Sophie Barrett, who wrote an article about her visit to Les Chaix du Vieux Bourg in 2011. We haven't had reds in stock in so long I can't remember the last time I tried one, but I've always been a fan of the whites, which usually highlight everything I love about the more inherently oxidative side of Savagnin. Even his Chardonnays are uniquely Jurassian.
Overnoy-Crinquard is an estate I was peripheraly aware of. I haven't tried all of the wines, but I found their 'Ploussard' (old spelling of Poulsard) to be delightful and look forward to trying their Trousseau. Mikael Crinquand is winemaker here, and the small estate has been producing wines from organically farmed vineyards for many generations, with a modest 5 hectares of vines.
Domaine de la Borde, run by Julien Mareschel, is a small estate in Arbois-Pupillin that I know for whites mostly. The Chardonnays in particular are some of my favorites to share with friends alongside a Maconnais or Côte de Beaune expression, for the learning experience, and because they're tasty.
We've written about Domaine Ratte a few times, once to highlight a lineup, and once simply to rave about a specific wine, the 2019 Chardonnay 'Grand Curoulet.' Turns out there's a tiny bit of that very wine left with the importer, along with the 'Clos Maire' red that I was a fan of when I tried it last year (I had 2018, current release is 2020, but I'll put my money on it being good).
Domaine de la Pinte wines I've mostly consumed in the Jura, as almost any restaurant or cafe in the little sleepy town of Arbois will likely have a reasonably priced bottle of Pinte on the list. They are a large domaine for the area (and this email), with about 34 hecatares of vines, but they were also early proponents of organic farming, certified organic since 1999, and practicing biodynamic since 2009. Their wines may not list among the most memorable for me, but I find them to be a very reliable estate for wines with a classic Jura profile. No bells and whistles, just good local Jura wine. Mags are the only format available at the moment, but the 2012 Savagnin and the 2016 Melon Queue Rouge jumped out at me as bottles I might have to try with some friends. Melon Queue Rouge may just be a red-stalked Chardonnay, though several producers in the Jura argue it is distinct from Chardonnay. Either way, 2016 was a vintage I paticularly liked for balance and acidity, and there's only one way to find out if it's good!
Bruno Bienaimé is the new kid on the block for me. We brought in his 2018 Trousseau not long ago and a few customers with notably good taste snatched them up, but not before I had a chance to purchase a bottle and try it. I was really impressed with the deep flavors and balance of the wine along with its obvious ageability. In one of John Gilman's articles in "A View from the Cellar," Gilman writes: "Among the producers whose wines I especially liked in preparing this article, Bruno Bienaimé was one who really stood out for me. Monsieur Bienaimé is not a long-time vigneron in the Jura, as he is a native of the Champagne region and spent a full decade working as Vincent Laval’s right hand man in his cellars in Cumières learning the fine nuances of making Champagne, prior to starting his own project in the Jura... Bruno Bienaimé plows his vines by horse, uses a gentle basket press for the crushing of his bunches and indigenous yeasts for the fermentation of all of his wines, which are done in barrel. They are aged in a variety of older casks, never chapitalized and bottled without filtration after fully two years of barrel aging. Bruno is also quite circumspect with his use of SO2, with one gram added at the press and another gram added just before bottling. From what I tasted of Bruno’s wines, he is excelling with all four varietals that he is currently bottling, and though one of the newcomers to the region, he is also one of its stars." (John Gilman, "View from the Cellar") One update to this is that Bruno stopped using sulfur at bottling after the 18’s and is generally only using SO2 at press now.
-Eben Lillie
