Fumey-Chatelain 'No Sin Tou Tsefs' Arbois 2023

In 2019, I went to the Jura and stumbled into Fumey-Chatelain while visiting Montigny-lès-Arsures, near Arbois. I left completely mesmerized. I tasted with Adéline right on a stone-carved lagar used to stomp grapes by foot in the past. Among the bottles, they'd placed rocks from their vineyards, and you could see marine fossils pressed into them. That's the Jura. 

The domaine was founded about 30 years ago by Raphaël Fumey (cousin of Stéphane Tissot and Frédéric Lornet) and his wife Adeline Chatelain. They started just growing grapes to sell to négociants. Then the terrible frost of 1991 destroyed 95 per cent of their vineyards. They decided to vinify what was left themselves. The wines turned out rather well, and in 1999 they found an old farm in Montigny-lès-Arsures to settle in permanently.

Now their son Marin runs the show. He's been at it since 2015, including stints at Crystallum in South Africa and Burn Cottage in New Zealand. Under him, they've converted to organic, soon biodynamic, and started paying attention to the international market. But the winemaking is still old-school: native yeasts, no additives, ageing in old oak or tank, bottled unfined and unfiltered.

This wine is a blend of Trousseau, Ploussard, and Pinot Noir from limestone-rich soils in Arbois. Aged in foudres and barrels for 10 months. It's just joyful. Wild strawberry, tart cranberry snap, a little rose hip, something that smells like a damp forest floor, and a peppery lift. Light but structured, with tannins that are straight-up silky. Juicy. Mineral.

Drink it slightly chilled, with anything from charcuterie to roast chicken.