The blog of cooking-ez.com
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.
Let me tell you a few words about it.
8,005 3 4.7
Last modified on: May 14th 2022
Keywords for this post:WinesJuraWhiteSavagninVineyardYellow wineTypicityThe delicious complexity of Jura wines
Where are they?
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?
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
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 :-).
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?
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
How to sprinkle well?
When in a recipe you need to sprinkle something, that is to say to spread a fine layer of powder (flour, sugar, etc.) on something, powdered sugar on a pie for example, you will probably use a fine strainer or a sieve, this is the best way to proceed. But is that all?6135 May 23th 2023
How to properly roll out a pie crust?
Very often in pastry making, you have to roll out a pastry before using it for a pie or another dessert. At home, of course, you get out your rolling pin and simply roll it out. Is there a way to get an evenly rolled out dough? That's what we will see in this article.9594.8 May 10th 2023
Don't throw away your pizza crusts
You've probably already noticed that at the end of a pizza meal, at least half of the participants have left the crusts in the boxes or on the plates that many don't eat. Naturally, one would tend to put them "to the birds", or worse, to throw them away, and it's a shame because they are in fact...1,6964.8 April 22th 2023
The long fermentation of bread
I had already told you in a previous article about the delicious little alchemy that happens when we make bread, let's try to go a little further this time, and try to discover what makes a good bread, in other words, which has taste. .1,9034.8 April 13th 2023
Sugar syrups
In cooking, and especially in pastry, we often use sugar syrups, a simple mixture of water and sugar in varying proportions. Here is a presentation of their differences. .3,5154.4 January 17th 2023
Other pages you may also like
The "pith" of the cauliflower
When using cauliflower in a recipe, there is a lot of preparation work at the beginning: removing the leaves, taking the tops or florets, etc. It's a bit tedious, but in the end you're left with the best of the cauliflower, ready to be used in your recipe.6,2804 February 5th 2022
Fried potatoes or fried mash?
In cooking there are a lot of dishes that appear to be extremely simple but which can actually prove to be very tricky. Amongst those that I'm aware of having this reputation are omelette and fried potatoes. Take fried potatoes; it's very simple because it's all there in the name of the dish: you...19K3.6 February 6th 2011
Rosemary in recipes
Rosemary, as I’m sure you know, is a culinary herb, one of the famous French "herbes de Provence", and is very effective in bringing a real taste of the Mediterranean to any dish. The classic way to use it in a recipe is to add a sprig or two and leave it in during cooking as a way of...17K3.7 April 18th 2018
Should a sausage be pricked before cooking?
If you are using sausages in a recipe, you may have already asked yourself the question: Should you prick it before cooking it, or not? You will certainly find as many opinions "you should prick" as "you should not". Let's try to untangle all this.39K2.2 September 29th 2018
The bitterness of endives
As I write these lines, we are entering the endive season, and if you like it, it's time to enjoy it, if possible with your local producers. Endive is good, but the reproach that is often made of it, and children in particular, is: "It's bitter! And it is (somewhat) true of course, endives...7,1624.5 February 9th 2019
Follow this page
If you are interested in this page, you can "follow" it, by entering your email address here. You will then receive a notification immediately each time the page is modified or a new comment is added. Please note that you will need to confirm this following.
Note: We'll never share your e-mail address with anyone else.
Alternatively: you can subscribe to the mailing list of cooling-ez.com , you will receive a e-mail for each new recipe published on the site.