1,464 easy and fully explained recipes, with +66K photos and 78 videos

The delicious complexity of Jura wines

Do you know the wines of the Jura? Maybe not, it's a small appellation, 2000 hectares, with a production of wines that are both very atypical and very typical, even unique for some of them.

Let me tell you a few words about it.

10 K 4.9/5 (15 reviews)

Keywords for this post:Wines Jura White Savagnin Vineyard Yellow wine Typicity

Last modified on: May 14^th 2022

For this post: Comment Follow Send to a friend

The delicious complexity of Jura wines

Where are they?

carte vignoble jura vignoble du jura

As their name indicates, they all come exclusively from Franche-Comté, from the department of Jura, along a strip 80 for about 6 km on the slopes that lead from the plain to the Jura plateau.
The best known "capital" is the small town of Arbois, which is often referred to as the "wine of Arbois".
The majority of the wines are made from grape varieties that can only be found in this vineyard with little known names such as trousseau, poulsard or savagnin.

Which wines?

gamme des vins du jura

The vineyard produces a little bit all the colors and all the kinds of wines, classic red, white and sparkling wines, as well as 2 delicious products : the straw wine and the macvin which I will speak to you about another time.
But it is mainly white wines, and in particular a kind of "flagship" wine which is the yellow wine, unique and very very atypical.

The savagnin

raisins du cépage savagnin

The great grape variety of the Jura is the savagnin, it is a white grape which is used only to make the wines called "Cotes du Jura" (with or without a Chardonnay part), and especially the famous yellow wine.

It's a quite amazing thing that the yellow wine: we harvest the savagnin only, we vinify, we put in wooden barrels and we wait 6 years that the wine matures, oxidizes and reduces, the famous part of the angels (by the way, they live well the angels with all that they recover :-).

bouteille clavelin

In the end we get a bottle with a particular shape, the clavelin, and a special capacity of 62 cl (vs 75 for the others), which is a wine of great ageing, some bottles of collection have several centuries.
No secret, it is very expensive as a wine, but it is the recognition of a real work of wine making, with a not negligible loss by evaporation.

On the other hand, you don't necessarily need to buy a vin jaune to discover the taste of savagnin, a coteaux du jura is an excellent start, at a very reasonable price.

And the taste?

This is where we come to the complexity of these wines, their amber color goes hand in hand with a unique taste, very dry, with very pronounced aromas of nuts.
Tastes that can be (very) disturbing, especially the first time, where we often have two camps in reaction: "What the hell is this thing?" (or "This is not wine!") and on the other hand "Wow, this is incredible!
A wine merchant friend of mine told me that there are no half measures with savagnin, either you love it or you hate it.
But it is the same with all atypical wines, if you are not warned and you expect a classic white wine, like chardonnay, it can be confusing, but you have to try to go a bit beyond the first nose and the first sip...

And in cooking?

poulet au vin jaune

As much as the tasting of a wine from the Jura (yellow or Côtes du Jura) can be surprising the first time, in cooking its presence in a sauce is a contribution that goes alone and brings a lot.
You may have heard the saying "great wine, great dish", it is also true here, of course the famous "Poularde au vin jaune flanquées de morilles" is one of the emblematic dishes of Comtoise cuisine, but in general Savagnin goes very well with creamy dishes, white meats or fish. Another frequent agreement on the great tables, it is the white asparagus and the yellow wine, and well on the perfect agreement in my opinion: yellow wine, some walnuts, a sourdough bread and Comté cheese (of 18 months minimum if possible).

The celebrity

The relative confidentiality of Jura wines does not prevent them from being showcased in beautiful ways, here are some examples:

- The yellow wine "Chateau-Chalon" (named after a small village that has its own AOC) is considered one of the 5 greatest white wines in the world, no less.
- The same yellow wine discovered by Napoleon III during a meal offered by Metternich had dazzled him, convinced that it was an Austrian wine he congratulated (it is said) Metternich, but the prince explained to him that it came in fact from France.
- Arbois wine has been sung by Jacques Brel (Le dernier repas) and Boris Vian, among others.

I hope that these few lines, of course a rather short description, will make you want to taste it, either in a glass or in a recipe.

To sum up: If you don't know Jura wines yet, try one of these days to open a bottle of white Coteaux du Jura in Savagnin grape variety, maybe it will be the beginning of a discovery...

Lasts posts

The little trap of thick cream

When you need to add cream to a recipe, you might be wondering: thick (heavy) cream or liquid cream? In most cases, there's no big difference: you can use either. But there is one exception, and that's when the cream needs to be cooked, for a sauce for example, and here the difference between...
December 13^th 20241,3645

Sauce and salad: When and how to mix them?

When dressing a salad, there's a kind of golden rule: add the dressing very shortly before serving, especially if your salad contains crunchy elements such as croutons or fresh vegetables, which will retain their crunchiness or crispiness. But, as is often the case in the kitchen, there are...
November 29^th 20241,4185

No need to boil gelatin

Gelatin is a magical ingredient for making light, creamy, structured desserts, yet it's often misused in the kitchen. A common mistake in some recipes is the idea that it needs to be boiled for it to work properly, but this is a mistake indeed: gelatin melts at a much lower temperature, around...
November 21^th 20241,5455

Your oven in "proofer" mode

In the bakery, proofing is a crucial stage in the process of making light, plump breads and pastries. During proofing, the yeast ferments the sugars present in the dough, releasing carbon dioxide which forms bubbles. This process allows the dough to swell and aerate, guaranteeing a soft, light...
September 27^th 20244,6035

The right size of zucchini

When you buy zucchini at the market, you're often offered a wide variety of sizes, from very small to very large. But which ones to choose? Here are a few tips.
September 9^th 20244,7815

See all posts Random post RSS feeds

Other pages you may also like

Candied fruits: don't get ripped off

Do you like candied fruit? You might like to nibble a handful or add it to a recipe, like a classic fruit cake or delicious Italian specialities like panettone or sicilian epiphany pie.
June 21^th 201758 K 24.2

For well opened (puffed) cakes

It's always nice to have a well puffed up cake after baking, not only will it taste good but it looks great too. Let's see how to get this beautiful shape almost every time.
January 23^th 201928 K4.2

Cooking time for pasta

What is as good and simple as pasta? Not much, I think, and it's so easy to prepare: boiling water, salted (or not, depending on your taste), a few minutes of boiling and it's ready. The only "difficulty", so to speak, is the respect of the cooking time and the risk of, unfortunately, overcooking...
July 18^th 201919 K4.6

The right weight of pastry for a pie

Let's try to solve a thorny problem: How much dough will I need when I make my next pie? You're planning to make a pie, you're going to use your favourite mould or circle, but how much pastry will you need to fill it completely with a well spread pastry, without being too thin, or on the contrary...
March 20^th 202061 K4.3

The skin side of the fish first?

When it comes to cooking fresh fish, if it's filleted with its skin on and you're planning to pan-fry it in a little olive oil, for example, you might ask yourself the following question: Which side, skin or flesh, should come into contact with the pan first?
February 13^th 202121 K4.4