Jura – Le Nez dans le Vert

With just under 2100 hectares, the Jura may be a small wine region, but it attracts a disproportionate amount of attention, especially from natural wine lovers. The annual wine fair 'Le Nez dans le Vert' in Arbois, the wine capital of the region, was a rollercoaster, where I went from heaven to hell and back again within minutes. What’s cooking in this verdantly green wine region in Eastern France?

Once a year the little town of Arbois in the northern part of the Côtes de Jura appellation turns into the bustling center of the (mostly) natural wine world. For the thirteenth time this year most of the 48 members of Le Nez dans le Vert, an association of organically working wineries, presented their wines, attracting people from all over Europe to taste the latest vintages. Beanie-wearing youths walked about town with a glass and a bottle in their hands, and the terrace of the hippest bar/bistro, les Claquots, spilled over on the street. During Le Nez it is hard to find a room and close to impossible to get a table in a restaurant if you haven’t reserved ahead of time. Meanwhile the rapidly streaming Cuisance river that cuts through the town and through layers of Jura-limestone, follows its course undisturbedly on its way to the Loue, the Doubs and eventually the Saône river.

The Jura is often seen as the mirror image of the famous Côte d’Or – as the crow flies, Beaune lies just 72 kilometers away on the other side of the Saône river, and both regions are known for their geologically identical Jurassic limestone. However, the Jura soils are more clay dominant. There are other differences too. While Burgundy’s east-facing vineyards are situated on the dry, leeward side of the Massif Central, the Jura vineyards have a much wetter, western, windward orientation.

Burgundian invasion
Because of the generally good winegrowing conditions several wineries from across the Saône have set up shop in the Jura over the last decades with Domaine du Pélican, a joint venture of Marquis d’Angerville of Volnay and his winemaker François Duvivier, having the highest profile. Duvivier, who now runs the Jurassic winery in the village of Montigny-lès-Arsures, just north of Arbois, tells me that there is some resentment among the local vintners against the Burgundian invasion. But Wink Lorch, who wrote a book about the Jura wine region and coincidentally joined me on my visit to Duvivier, says there is no statistical evidence for this. Burgundian-owned estates may have high visibility but remain a small minority. Nonetheless, land prices have gone up – the average now hovering around 80.000 euro per hectare – Duvivier says. Although still a fraction of what land in Burgundy may cost, for new entrants, in particular locals, it has become harder to start a winery.

Bewildering number of styles
The Jura’s vinous identity is simple and complex at the same time. Simple because there are only seven appellations – one overarching regional appellation (Côtes de Jura), three local appellations (Arbois, Château-Chalon and l’Etoile) and three product appellations (Macvin du Jura, Crémant du Jura and Marc du Jura) – and five varieties (chardonnay, pinot noir, savagnin, poulsard and trousseau). Complex because many wineries, even small ones, make wines in a bewildering number of styles.

Apart from the traditional still wines, made ouillé, that is, with the barrels topped-up, 25 percent of the production consists of Crémant du Jura. The region is probably best known for its Vins Jaunes, a wine that is, similar to certain types of sherry, aged under a veil of yeast flor (sous voile). Moreover, the region produces a small amount of vin de paille (a sweet wine made of sun-dried berries) and fortified wine (Macvin). Many wineries make all these styles. Domaine Berthet-Bondet in Château-Chalon is one of them.

Hélène Berthet-Bondet, the current, second-generation vintner running the winery, likes the experiment, she tells me when I visit her as part of my trip to the Jura, which also includes a visit to Domaine du Pélican and the salon des vins Le Nez dans le Vert. The Château-Chalon appellation is dedicated to Vin Jaune, but Hélène is not the person who would be satisfied making this oxidized style of wine only. Depending on the vintage she also makes a Macvin, a vin de paille, a crémant and traditional still wines. But her Tradition is the winery’s most successful wine. Hélène calls it a “vin d’initiation”, a wine to get acquainted with the typical, oxidative flavors of a Vin Jaune.

Vin Jaune
Duvivier prefers to speak of a “flor wine” rather than an oxidized wine to describe Vin Jaune’s style. The veil of flor, he says, protects the wine from oxidizing. On the other hand, Vin Jaune is aged in barrels that aren’t topped up for 6.5 years. Were it not for the flor, the wine would be directly exposed to oxygen. In other words, the flor slows down the oxidation but doesn’t stop it, allowing the wine to develop aromas and flavors of walnut, curry, smoky peat, ginger, fenugreek and the entire gamut of secondary flavors. Depending on age and a winery’s style, the wines may lean more towards the citrusy side (for example Labet’s) or more towards the nutty side. The flor yeast feeds itself partly on the last grape sugars, rendering the final wine distinctly dry. But the yeast also consumes alcohol. “This balances out the increase in alcohol due to evaporation of water during the wine’s long aging in barrel,” explains Berthet-Bondet.

A Vin Jaune is always made from 100 percent savagnin, the Jura’s signature high acidity and relatively neutral white grape variety. For many people Vin Jaune’s flavors can be an acquired taste. Even the French say that it flouts all the rules of traditional (protective) wine making. Hence Berthet-Bondet’s Tradition, a blend of chardonnay and savagnin that spends only two years aging sous voile, thus limiting the impact of the flor yeast and the oxidation. But for the initiated, Vin Jaune is the real thing. Berthet-Bondet describes both as winter wines that combine perfectly with cheese fondue and raclette, typical Jura dishes made with the local Comté cheese.

More press capacity
Like everywhere else, climate change is never far away in the conversation. Berthet-Bondet grew up with the practice that one first harvests the grapes for the crémants, then the reds and finally the savagnin. But due to unpredictable weather and generally warmer summers, she has now shifted to harvesting all three at the same time but in several passes through the vineyard. Both Berthet-Bondet and Duvivier say that the harvesting window has become shorter. Therefore, larger amounts of grapes per day arrive at the cellar forcing them to have more press capacity available. If this coping strategy is sufficient, time will tell. To my surprise Berthet-Bondet says that labor isn’t a big problem.

Too much Vin de France?
Overall, the tasting experience at Le Nez was a mixed bag. Cult wineries such as Domaine André et Mireille Tissot, Domaine Labet, Maison Pierre Overnoy and a string of other wineries (for example Domaine de la Rénardiere, Les Bottes Rouges, Domaines des Marnes Blanches, Domaine de Montbourgeau, and of course Domaine du Pélican and Domaine Berthet-Bondet) presented heavenly wines of consistently good quality. But seldom have I tasted so many mousy and/or highly volatile wines as during my three days in Arbois. I have always considered the natural wine movement as an enrichment of the world of wine, not only in style but, also, by putting industrial winemaking methods into question on a more philosophical level. However, the stubborn dismissal of sulphur to keep wines clean remains a mystery for me. Out of sympathy and respect, I will refrain from mentioning names, but I sympathize with Duvivier’s worries about the number of wineries that produce under the generic Vin de France indication of origin. It is a contentious subject. Many wineries are forced to produce their wines outside the appellations because the tasting commissions dismiss their well-made and often delicious wines as atypical. On the other hand, at Le Nez there seemed to be a relatively large number of wineries that choose the liberty of producing outside the appellation, but whose wines would rightly be disqualified for labeling under any of the Jura’s appellations. That, in my opinion, unnecessarily taints the reputation of the region. However, the tasting may have exposed me to great ups and downs, the Jura undeniably produces unique and – fortunately mostly – beautiful wines.