Jura Wine Goes For $75,000 at Auction

by David Kiley (RSS feed)
Feb 9th 2011 at 9:01PM

What would you pay for a Jura wine? On second thought: what's a Jura?

The Jura Mountains, north of the Alps, stretch from Switzerland to Germany's Rhine River. In eastern France, the Jura is one of that country's tiniest wine regions where the grapes grown are rare and hardy: savignan, trousseau, and ploussard.

Each February, deep in the heart of a Jura winter, thousands arrive for Le Percée du Vin Jaune (piercing of the yellow wine) to celebrate opening the first bottle of the newly released white wine known as vin jaune.

Because Vin jaune must be aged in oak for six years and three months before release, this year's Le Percée du Vin Jaune was for the 2004 vintage, but an even more unusually old Jura wine showed up: 237 years-old!

The old wine was produced from 100% sauvignon grapes during the reign of Louis XV, in 1774, and it was sold at auction in the Jura city of Arbois for 57,000 euros (almost $75,000).

Many claim that after six years in barrels, vin jaune becomes a deeply yellowed colored mineral-like wine that is an acquired taste. The buyer intends to find out what 237 years can do to the taste.

According to AFP News, Belgium, the Swiss buyer, Pierre Chevrier, said "My passion is to open bottles and I am delighted to have bought this bottle of vin jaune, which I will drink."

Chevrier's comment might have been meant as a dig aimed at famed Paris-based wine collector and Internet commenter, Francois Andouze, whom Chevrier outbid.

Tags: francois andouze, jura, jura region, jura wine, pierre chevrier, vin jaune, wine