Limestone soils. Perfectly angled vineyards that bask in full daytime sun. Excruciatingly low yields, resulting in soul-stirring Chardonnays. You might think we’re talking about Burgundy’s Côte de Beaune or Champagne’s Côte des Blancs, but no. Today is about Arbois-Pupillin, thanks to Léo Petit’s stunning 2020. Pupillin, a tiny town in the Jura, is ground zero for some of the most thrilling white wines being made right now. Léo Petit’s tiny-production bottling embodies everything that makes Chard from here special: resounding orchard fruit, broad palate-coating texture, and invigorating mineral zip.
If your first thoughts when you hear “Jura” are the spectacular but admittedly “out-there” oxidative whites the region first built its name on, this is in a different league. It’s a minimal-intervention masterpiece that speaks the same language as some of the most elite Chardonnay you can find, just with a little country twang. It’s a must-have for any lover of detailed, high-energy French whites. And considering it comes in at a fraction of the price of the blue chip bottles it drinks like, there’s no reason not to go deep on it!
Look around for info on Léo Petit and you admittedly won’t find much. But he’s a young man who has Pupillin in his blood, poised to be the next star of the region. His family runs one of the most respected estates in the Jura, Domaine de la Renardière. Léo helps his father Jean-Michel and mother Laurence in both the vineyards and cellar, and, despite being barely 30 years old, brings incredible experience to his winemaking craft. Indeed, he made his first wine when he was only 14 years old, from a plot of vines planted the same year he was born.
In Pupillin, Chardonnay is planted alongside Jura specialities like Savagnin, Trousseau, and Ploussard. Once a little too frigid to produce really complete young Chardonnay, in the climate change era, these south-facing slopes of limestone have begun to produce wines to compete with Burgundy, barely an hour to the west. And while the Jura originally became famous for its white wines aged under a Sherry-esque veil of yeast, the bottlings that really catch our attention these days follow a more Burgundian aging regimen. Léo’s family has made a name for its “ouille,” or “topped up,” bottlings, and he employs that practice with today’s wine. It’s a beautifully unadulterated look into the majesty possible in this unique corner of the world.
Pupillin, and the Jura as a whole, has become a hotspot for low-intervention “natural” wine as well, a vein in which Léo works comfortably. The fruit for his Chardonnay comes from a 35-year-old plot farmed organically by his family since 1990, and Léo bottles the wine unfined, unfiltered, and with just a tiny dash of sulfur at bottling. His 2020 was fermented spontaneously in stainless steel then aged in neutral barrels.
Treat this bottle like white Burgundy, in a wide-bowl glass to enjoy the full range of aromatics. It pours a slightly hazy pale gold, and the nose lifts from the glass with waves of golden orchard fruit. Creamed red apple, pear skin, quince paste, white flower, meadow hay, lemon zest, candle wax, crushed chalk, and faint honeyed nut combine for an inviting, almost pastoral aromatic spectrum. The palate is broad, almost creamy, with deeply resonant tones of golden fruit, followed by a wash of zippy limestone-derived acidity and a minutes-long mineral finish. This is some serious Chardonnay, to be poured alongside any in-demand bottle from Burgundy. There’s no doubt that Léo will soon be recognized as a superstar. Get in on his wines now!
