Nowadays in New York, if you want to be a hip wine drinker, probably something like a wine-hipster, or let’s just call it winester, there’s no way around Jura wines. Although in most parts of Europe you wouldn’t get a glass of Jura, most of the trendy wine bars and restaurants of New York feature a couple of those singular wines from Eastern France.

Well, luckily I had a chance to be “hip” before the Jura wave swept to Manhattan, when my friend Didier introduced me to the wines of his home region during a trip to Château Chalon. I even got to discover a damn good wine pairing: according to Didier, there’s no better match for a curry then a slightly oxydized Côtes du Jura, and he was probably right. Read the rest of this entry »

For those who seek the special, who are looking for anti-conformism, for originality, for true Terroir wines, for those who don’t want a grape variety to taste the same wherever on this globe it is growing, then necessarily either you already experienced wines from the Jura region or you one day will. Read the rest of this entry »

View from the village of Château-Chalon

After that memorable tasting on friday evening we didn’t take much of a break on saturday and went on with a few more bottles. This time we also seized the opportunity for exploring the Jura wine world and with our local hero Didier we probably had the best guide one could get. He calls this region his home and is a great ambassador for the local wines which, as you might know, are packed with character and are probably the opposites of mainstream stereotypes. Read the rest of this entry »

If Arbois and Savagnin sound like words spoken in a local dialect of a far away foreign language to you, then congratulations: you’re about to discover a wine from one up and coming but still “secret tip” wine region: The Jura in Eastern France. Read the rest of this entry »