The vineyard at Mesnay, near Arbois.
Tastings

Jura has it all!

Hard hit by frost and bad weather in recent years, the Jura remains a vineyard full of mysteries and assets. Rare grape varieties, "special" or more classic cuvées, very affordable prices, the tsunami of organic viticulture, dynamic wine tourism - this is definitely a vineyard that has everything to please.

by

Christophe TUPINIER

on

"We're getting a lot of goodwill on the markets, but the Jura remains a secret that needs to be explained, and for us, the big challenge over the next few years will be knowledge. A lot of things still need to be put in place, but the idea is not to communicate in all directions. The vineyard covers just 2,100 hectares, it's a niche market, and we're going to have to talk about the rarity, atypicality and surprise of Jura wines. Without losing sight of the fact that Jura wants to remain accessible, humble, rare, but not reserved for experts", explains Marine Couturier, the new director of the interprofessional organization (CIVJ), who sums up the squaring of the circle in the Jura way, which is not at all a "classic" vineyard like the others. We even wonder where it's possible to find such a diversity of wines in such a limited area, with a few grape varieties (savagnin, poulsard, trousseau) found almost exclusively here and others (chardonnay, pinot noir) everywhere.

You'll find your way around yellow wines, vins de paille, macvins, savagnins with or without floral notes, chardonnay with floral notes most of the time but not always, not to mention blended cuvées (vintage or not...) in white wines, where you can find all kinds of configurations between percentages of grape varieties and types of ageing. And it's hardly any simpler in red wines, between single-varietal cuvées and blends of two or three of the grape varieties grown in the vineyards. As for crémants du Jura, which are celebrating their thirtieth anniversary this year and now account for around 25% of total production, this is also a great playground for bubble-lovers, since cuvées can feature up to... five different grape varieties.

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Other articles

Thomas Bouley took over the family estate in 2002.

Estates and Houses

Jean-Marc and Thomas Bouley: an example of peasant common sense

With Thomas Bouley, once we'd got past the cordial welcome exchanges, our meeting immediately began with a tour of the vineyard bordering the estate. We exchanged views on pruning, took a handful of soil samples to illustrate that the soil is well aerated, alive and not compacted, and talked more generally about agronomy, our top priority [...].

by

Christophe TUPINIER

on