From savagnin to vin jaune and poulsard, this relatively unheralded French region is a gold mine for interesting bottles
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f you’ve heard of savagnin (nope, not sauvignon), you may well be one of those in-the-know wine drinkers who have been ushered in the direction of the Jura, this grape’s iconic region, after being priced out of your favourite burgundy. And while there are some similarities between the two regions, a focus on chardonnay and pinot noir being the most obvious, there are plenty of other varieties for discerning wine nerds, and savagnin is definitely one of them.
It’s a grape variety that’s been grown in France for 900 years, with high acidity and a late-ripening in the vineyard, and it’s known for the complex, age-worthy styles of wine it can create. It’s also grown just over the border in Switzerland, where it’s known as heida, as well as in Australia, where it was once mistaken for albariño. In the Jura, however, this high-acid grape produces nuanced still wines, and wines made in the vin jaune style, for which the wine is matured under yeast to give it a nutty, complex character akin to that of a biologically aged sherry such as fino.
The curious character of these wines makes them a sommelier’s secret weapon, as Donald Edwards, consultant sommelier, tells me: “Vin jaune scratches an itch that’s hard to sort any other way: oily, sharp, salty, a little bit wrong, but also ridiculously moreish. The Jura’s chardonnays seem to rewrite exactly what that variety can be in terms of expression, but it’s the savagnins that really epitomise the area, snarling at you, while at the same time being defiantly discordant in the most thrilling way. ”
