Young vines planted from a massal selection of Jurassien Chardonnay Rose on soils of clay and limestone. (La Mailloche, Curon, Valiere, Bruyères)

Ripe and beautifully complex

Stéphane Tissot

Stéphane Tissot, who grew up on the estate, has been the driving force behind the dramatic resurgence of Jura wines over the last 20 years. André and Mireille, Stéphane’s parents, started the domaine in 1962 - Stéphane remembers cleaning barrels as a kid (small enough to get in them!). His first vintage was 1989 at the age of 19 and his precise work in the cellar was immediately recognized by his peers, as Jura wines were then quite "rustic," nothing like what is made today. Stéphane soon stopped adding yeasts for his fermentations and, after meeting Nady Foucault at Clos Rougeard, he began conversion to organic agriculture, one of the first producers in the Jura to do so. The domaine was certified organic in 1999 and biodynamic in 2004 and new plantings were all done with massale selection rather than the clones then used throughout the region. He produced his first "Chardonnay de Terroir" in 1997 and In 2000 he was able to purchase great parcels in Les Bruyeres, La Mailloche, and Chateau Chalon. "Our biodynamic work in the vineyards gives us pleasure and enables us to vinify our wines in a natural way that reflects our terroirs and our work, far from the industrial techniques that banalize wine." Stephane's energy, intelligence, and hard work have helped transform the Jura from a vinous backwater into one of the world's most exciting wine regions.

"A wine made with love and passion produces an emotion. You can find in a wine the personality and the character of those who made it because each gesture, each operation, each decision has its importance. The "life force" is so well constructed that if we speak of natural wines, you will not find two wines that are the same anywhere in the world, as opposed to industrial wines which are all similar.

The industrialization of wine is the end of its identities, its nuances, its characteristics which are part of the magic of a bottle." - Stéphane Tissot