If you have read my wideworldofwine blog since I began posting you will know I visit the Jura Region every year, usually around harvest time, but you will also know that my focus is generally on the newer producers, the up-and-coming stars of the region, so to speak. There is, of course, another side of the coin. A large group of domaines who are not such new kids on the block, who are not always experimenting with zero sulphur or amphorae.
It is perhaps ironic that the younger producers who usually attend the Nez dans le Vert t asting in spring each year, were actually exhibiting in Paris the day before this tasting. The London tasting took place in the attractive, neo-classical, Robert Adam designed 18th Century Chandos House, once owned by the Royal Society of Medicine, and now a small hotel close to Oxford Circus.
There were seventeen producers showing their wines, with what appeared to be a maximum of six wines each. In a small room, perhaps a little cramped with the number of visitors, it was too difficult to taste all the wines. That was a shame. I only managed to taste one wine from Domaine Rolet too, generally one of the most reliable of the large family domaines in Arbois, with a wine shop in the centre of town.
But I did taste the ranges of twelve out of seventeen, and those which appear below are my personal pick of the bunch. Other tasters may well prefer other producers. Pignier is based in the lovely village of Montaigu, just a few kilometres from Lons-le-Saunier.
They have been certified biodynamic by Demeter since , so no standing still. The Vin Jaune , the new vintage in the region, is good too. Raeburn has bagged a couple of gems in the seemingly frantic fight of nearly every British importer of French wines to finally get in on the Jura act this year. But there are still gems to be dug up and polished. This is a domaine you may have heard of? Surely that will soon change? The wines are correct, and perhaps risk free, but they go much further, with perfect balance, structure and elegance.
