Will Lyons at The Wall Street Journal explores wines from France’s Jura region, a road less traveled by many wine enthusiasts. Nestled between Switzerland and Burgundy under the Jura Mountains, the region produces “a raft of wine styles to discover” from its 2,100-hectares of vineyard plantings. Five main grape varieties—chardonnay, pinot noir, savagnin, poulsard and trousseau—are made into five different styles: sparking or Crémant, red and rosé, white, Vin Jaune and Vin de Paille.
Lyons finds the red wines more interesting, but he enjoys the whites as well. He also recommends Vin Jaune, the region’s most famous wine, which is aged under flor in a fashion similar to fino and manzanilla sherry. “These wines are esoteric and not easy to find,” writes Lyon, “but Domaines Baud, Pignier, Tissot, Daniel Dugois, de la Touraize, de la Pinte, Rijckaert, Claude Charbonnier and Champ Divin are well worth tracking down.” [The Wall Street Journal] [Photo: Flickr/Viña Caliterra]