Today’s wine nicely encapsulates why the remote Jura region of eastern France has developed such a cult following recently. For one thing, wine people love frontiers, and anyone who has visited the mountainous, sparsely populated Jura would characterize it as such.
Although the heart of the Jura is only about an hour east of Burgundy’s hub city of Beaune, it feels like another world altogether. Yet with many of the same grape varieties as Burgundy—most notably Chardonnay and Pinot Noir—as well as similar soils and microclimates, Jura has emerged as a Burgundy alternative with its own charming story to tell. Domaine Rolet’s 2013 Arbois Chardonnay is the plainspoken ‘country cousin’ to the Chardonnays of Burgundy’s Côte de Beaune, offering the same mix of creaminess and mineral nerve found in Meursault and Puligny at a sharply reduced price. Not to be confused with the oxidative, Sherry-like styles also produced in the Jura (typically from the Savagnin grape), this is a bright and buoyant Chardonnay that speaks clearly of its out-of-the-way place; while it certainly shows its kinship to white Burgundy, it ultimately takes you in a new, somewhat ethereal direction—all at a price that will typically get you something plodding and oak-drenched. If you prefer pretty and perfumed, as I do, this one’s for you!