Jacques Puffeney Savagnin 2002

In recent years, delicious budget-priced sparkling wines (Crémant du Jura) and some fascinating mineral-driven Chardonnays have done a lot to spread the region’s name. But I, always looking for vinous oddity, have a profound love for Jura’s speciality, yellow wine – vin jaune – which is a gently oxidised 14% white aged no less than six years in wood, in unfilled barrels, where local strains of yeast grow a thin protective film. This latter technique (called sous voile) inevitably sparks comparisons with fino sherry (or for the well-travelled, szamorodni Tokaj), but whoever has tasted vin jaune knows that its bouquet of curry spice, morel mushrooms and walnuts can be compared to nothing at all.

Vin jaune is made from Savagnin, a grape, like many things in the Jura, grown nowhere else at all – although genetically it is a cousin of the well-known Gewürztraminer. Technically it is Traminer without the gewürz – spice – even though it has plenty. Even when grown without oxidation, Savagnin is easily recognisable for its spicy aromas, as well as it mouth-puckering acidity. In fact, no matter how warm the vintage this grape always manages to taste green and underripe (whence the initial idea of keeping it in barrel for so long, to tame the harsh acids). Although the recent trend in the Jura has been towards a mild ‘internationalisation’ of its wines – planting more Chardonnay, and vinifying Savagnin less oxidatively – and although some of the resulting wines are spectacularly good, I firmly believe Jura’s best calling card are the sous voile wines. Not only vin jaune though – there is plenty of interest and value for money to be found in the lighter examples of oxidative-aged Savagnin.