Percee du Vin Jaune 2007 (Jura)

The first Vin-Jaune cask (millesime 2000) will be tapped in a couple of minutes in front of 8000 revelers...

Salins Les Bains, Jura. Sunday, feb. 4th.
There's something special with Jura wines. Everything seems different here, the grape varieties' names sound strange (Savagnin, Poulsard, Trousseau), the bottles have a unique shape (clavelin) found nowhere else, and they even manage to have the most vibrant wine festivity of the french wine regions (50 000 people in 2 days), an authentic, popular, unpretentious celebration of wine with strong bacchic undertones...That all, for a relatively small Appellation (1800-hectare surface today__20 000 before the Phylloxera) whose wines are not very familiar to many of us.
The "Percée du Vin Jaune 2007" was the 11th such meeting organized to celebrate the uniqueness of Jura wines, and foremost of the Vin Jaune (yellow wine), this odd oxidized golden-yellow Savagnin wine which has to stay at least six years in a cask before being released, and this, without any top-up wine additions to compensate for the evaporation : A layer of unique indigenous yeasts, named "Saccharomyces Bayanus" develops at the surface of the wine and protects it along the years, giving it also this inimitable taste of nut, almond, cinnamon and caramel [pic on the left : the very first Vin-Jaune glass filled at the cask, held high by Jean-Charles Tissot...]. The casks with the Vin Jaune must be kept in dry cellar. But the Vin Jaune is so particular : even an attic (hot in summer, ice-cold in winter) can make great Vins Jaunes, as long as it is dry...
The Percée was held in Salins Les Bains this year (different place every year). It lasted two days as usual, saturday-sunday feb. 4-5th. The Percée's focal point is when, on sunday, a Vin Jaune cask with the millesime-2000 is shoulder-carried to the church for the mass and benediction, and brought after then to a large square, where someone from the "Confrérie des Nobles Vins du Jura" solemnly drives a wooden tap into it with a big mallet for the first official release to be shared with the crowd [pic on right : I got the pic of the very first glass filling ! ]. 5000 to 8000 were crammed on a square that day to watch the event and to drink this 2000 Vin Jaune, with dozens of sommeliers walking in the crowd to fill the glasses.
I just came for a few hours to feel the beat of the day and take in the energy of the Jura crowd : that's what you need in the middle of winter, and the Vin Jaune not only cures colds better than vitamin C, but it clears up the winter gloom.

The ceremony's over and everyone in the crowd had his/her glass filled with the Vin Jaune Nouveau (sort of). That's when the real thing begins. Everyone goes from cellar to cellar to taste from the many Jura wineries (61 actually) participating in the event. Repeated intake of Jura wine has a very positive impact on people's mood, I can testify of that. And you don't only see it, but hear it... I should have recorded a short soundtrack, as I had taken the mp3 recorder with me, but was probably too much in phase with the surrounding stream to think about it. Sorry for that.Salins les Bains is at the northern tip of the 10 km by 80 km Jura strip. It is mostly a very old small town and the invited wineries had often set up their tasting stand in former vaulted chais or cellars like the two on these pictures [above and left]. That's where I began to use the 10 tickets that I got with the glass (You get the glass and tickets for 10 Euro when entering the town). Don't panic, you can taste more than 10 wines, as usually, if you did not hand out the ticket, the vigneron or his aides would not ask for it...Many people also chose to buy a bottle at a stand and enjoy it in the crowd. I think most typically bought a bottle of Vin Jaune, priced in many of the wineries' stands at about 20 Euro, and you could see them holding the uniquely-shaped, 62-centiliter clavelin (the name of Jura-wine bottles). Others [pics on right and left] would buy Jura sparkling wine (Crémant du Jura).
I tasted several Savagnin, and Savagnin-Chardonnay wines and liked the specific aromas and mouthfeel. I should have bought some, they were at about 9 Euro usually, but my main motive was to mix in the crowd and feel the pulse. Most people were locals or came from Besancon (major regional town) or Dijon (Burgundy is close), especially the many students that gave their imprint to the whole thing.Even though many people were quite euphoric, everything went smooth and I didn't see any violent syndrome like the ones usually associated with excessive alcohol consumption in crowds. Btw, there seemed to be virtually no police, I only saw once a group of gendarmes. That's another mystery of Jura wines, this smooth unrolling, yet unbridled festive partying of thousands of people strolling and drinking in narrow streets (the small town had about 25 000 visitors each day)...
I tasted wines from several wineries among the 61 who took part to the event. I did not go to the best-known estates but rather to small wineries, like this 4-hectare, organicly-farmed Domaine du Pont de Breux, owned by Jean-Charles Maire [pic on left]. Liked the two wines I tasted there, his Savagnin 2004 (12,5 Euro) and his Tradition 2003 (Savagnin-Chardonnay) at 9 Euro. He will have a stand at the coming organic-products fair "Vivre Autrement" in Paris (march 16-19) and I'll taste all of his range there. Later, I also liked a Cotes du Jura Poulsard 2003 by Domaine Boilley (owners Luc et Sylvie Boilet, very aromatic and refined tannins (7 Euro). These native Jura red varieties make pale-color reds, which is not fashionable on the mass-market today as the crowd wants dark, high-extraction fruit bombs. That's fine for me, makes less pressure on these delicate wines (that oddly can age easily 20 years), and I won't blame anyone for paying only 5 to 7,5 Euro for a Poulsard or Trousseau...Domaine Boilley will participate in the Huge Paris wine fair next november and I'll take note.
Another nice one was the Vin Jaune 2000 at 21,75 Euro (first release of course) by Domaine Morel-Thibaut. This 100% Savagnin had a very long, intense mouth with a good acidity. It will also participate to the "Vivre Autrement" fair and I'll taste their other wines there.Vin Jaune party follow-up in the train...Salins Les Bains lies in a valley with wooded mountains all around and at 4:30pm the last sunrays were bathing a small fort up there while the temperature dropped abruptly. Thank god we had this good wine and the crowd to keep warm. A funny thing I saw is the fact that many people participated in a joint Gendarmerie/Road-Safety-Association program where they volontarily left their car keys in a Gendarmerie tent when entering the city, and took them back at the end of the day with a free disposable breath-test to check if the (supposedly) 10 glasses drunk over the course of several hours left them below the legal limit [see pic on left where people are given their keys and a breath-tester]. The police didn't follow the ones who blasted the color of the tester, but the goal was to have someone in a party (often a woman) drink less and drive.
The mountain city was not accessible by car for this event, but dozens of free buses made the commute between Salins and Mouchard 8 km away where people could rejoin their car (in big parking lots) or take a train. The party was not over for many of the departing visitors, if I can judge from this non-isolated scene [picture above] observed aboard a train heading for Besancon or Dijon...

Comments

[Jack]

Well done, Bert! But I think "Confrérie des Nobles Vins du Jura" needs to start paying you if you're going to be their PR/publicity arm. :)

[Bertrand]

Thanks for dropping in, Jack. Yes, I'm going to ask for a few cases...or else ! (I could go on strike !)

[Laurent]

Nice report as usual, many thanks!
next time you're visiting Jura, you should have a stay et the Ganevat winery in Rotalier.
I 'm sure that you will enjoy the wines and the guy (now a good friend of mine),
and will get good stuff for an outstanding photo report
there are so many good wines over there that are under-estimated (stéphane tissot, overnoy-houillon, brignot, pinte, ...)

cheers

laurent

[William Patton]

Thanks again for a great report. Opened a bottle of Arbois (Trousseau grape variety) 1999 yesterday and can vouch for the fact that these wines age well despite being unfashionaby light-bodied. A lovely rooftile colour too. The Jura region's wines are definitely worth discovering. I remember drinking some Savagnin some time ago and enjoying it.