jura region

Jura Wine Goes For $75,000 at Auction

Filed under: Wine

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!

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