Robe — Deep amber-gold, the colour of old brass and walnut oil
walnut
curry spice
green apple
morel
dried orange peel
Palate
Dry, piercing and endless, the yeast veil's savoury tang riding high acidity
Ageing
20–100 years; among the longest-lived wines made
Serving
14–16 °C, opened hours ahead, with comté or poulet aux morilles
Savagnin spends six years and three months in old barrels that are never topped up; in the emptying headspace a veil of yeast forms over the wine and slowly transmutes it — France's cousin to fino sherry, arrived at independently in the Jura. It is bottled in the 62 cl clavelin, said to be what remains of a litre after the angels have taken their share.
The result is dry, golden and piercing: walnut, curry spice and green apple over an acidity that lets bottles open decades later. Château- Chalon is its citadel appellation, and each February the Percée du Vin Jaune festival broaches the new vintage. Louis Pasteur, a Jura native, kept a vineyard at Arbois and studied fermentation on his own vines — the science of wine begun beside its strangest example.