Ladies and gentlemen, let me take you into a world of wine that is nearly upside down, a charlie and the chocolate factory facsimile of inside out and upside down flavors
I am increasingly becoming intrigued by a growing list of distinguished yet offbeat wine regions to visit and reveal, as a primo manifesto in service of this growing wine and travel blog, Highly Explorable. It is an extension of ourselves in which interests us, and since I wsa young I always preferred the opposite direction to the mass sea of our peers.
After my exploratory ramble on over to Alsace a few years ago, Jura is just such a delightful and highly qualifying area to continue with this core mission in place.
Chances are Jura is not on your radar of imminently visitable places, for wine or otherwise. It sees a molecular size fraction of the millions of tourists swelling the more classic French destinations every year. And yet it’s treasures of charm are as bristling as ever to entice you.
Tucked in a tiny area of 000km (DATA POINT HERE) east of Burgundy, and due west of Switzerland, the Jura is the source of some of the most unusual styles of wine you are ever poised to experience. The most signature of this statement is Vin Jaune, a completely dry and complex elixir of golden and yellow tones made also in a highly oxidative style that seems to flout all the rules of winemaking.
White wine is made of 100% from one of the regional varieties, Savignin, in a traditional fashion. It is then aged in barrel for about six years. It is not topped up along the way, leading to a layer of dead yeast cells to form on the surface. The hyper extended lees layer limits the oxidation that would take place, balancing a fine line with what permeates through the staves of the barrel. The amount that evaporates away leaves about 62cl out of a full 100cl and leads to compulsory use of the 62cl clavelin style bottle shape unique to the region. And with the right combination of acid to weithstand years of aging acid Vin Jaune is ordanely worthy of long term storage.
Vin de Paille
Macvin is another
Another intriguing feature of Vin Jaune production is the time aged in barrel, a folkloric six years. That ultimately remains vague however, so here is how it works. The wine is transferred to barrel sometime between 8 and 18 months from harvest. An AOC specific period of 60 months in barrel under a veil of yeast (sous-voile) passes. Bottling can then take place in December following the 60 months. In a 2005 harvest, the wine could be barreled July 2006. August 2011 finally rolls around, bottled in December 2011, to be sold in 2012.
Jura is composed of five total AOCs, Cotes-du-Jura, Arbois, Chateau-Chalon, and l’Etoile, concentrated in a small region running mostly north and south around legendary wine and cheese hamlets like Arbois, Poligny, Besancon, Chateau-Chalon, Pupillin, and the spa resort town of Lons-le-Saunier.
Soil types
The terroir overall fixes on a sublime precision which unites all aspects into divine and tremendously kooky wines.
