Jura and Beaujolais: the natural wine heartland

The Jura and Beaujolais sit two hours apart on either side of the Saône in eastern France, and between them they hold most of the arguments in natural wine. Arbois still ages Savagnin under a veil of yeast in barrels nobody tops up; in Villié-Morgon, Marcel Lapierre followed the chemist Jules Chauvet and made Gamay without added sulfur from 1981. Seven days, six cellars: a Savagnin specialist that went biodynamic and kept the classic register, a neighbour who puts Trousseau in amphora, a Rotalier cellar of forgotten grapes, two Morgon cellars run as cold rooms, and Château Thivin, the classic answer from the blue stone of Mont Brouilly. Lyon to Lyon, six to ten guests, the table every evening. The Jura and Beaujolais guides carry the geology.

Day 1: Lyon to Arbois#

We meet at 12:00 at Lyon Part-Dieu station, or at Saint-Exupéry airport, and drive north-east past Bourg-en-Bresse and Lons-le-Saunier to Arbois, about 190 kilometres and 2 h 30. Arbois is a town of yellow stone on the Cuisance with the Tour Canoz on the hill above; rooms are at a small hotel in the centre for three nights. At 17:30 I pour six wines to set the vocabulary: Chardonnay and Savagnin ouillé, topped up; Savagnin sous voile, from barrels left to evaporate under the veil, walnut and salt; pale Poulsard; darker Trousseau; and a vin jaune, 60 months under the veil, in its 62 cl clavelin. Welcome dinner nearby: poulet au vin jaune et aux morilles, the dish the wine was made for.

Day 2: La Pinte, Pupillin and Tissot#

At 09:30, five minutes up the Pupillin road, Domaine de la Pinte, where Roger Martin planted 14 hectares of Savagnin on blue Lias marl in 1953 for vin jaune alone. Today it is 34 hectares, 17 of them Savagnin, organic since 1999, Demeter since 2009, and many younger Jura growers trained here. We taste Savagnin ouillé against sous voile, then the vin jaune, released six years and three months after harvest, and walk on up the marl to Pupillin, where Poulsard is spelt Ploussard, for lunch. At 15:00, Montigny-lès-Arsures, 3 kilometres north: Domaine Tissot, founded in 1962 by André and Mireille Tissot, run since 1990 by Stéphane and Bénédicte, about 50 hectares, Demeter since 2004. Chardonnay from Les Bruyères and La Mailloche; Trousseau from clay amphora; the Crémant Indigène, refermented with vin de paille instead of sugar and yeast. Dinner in Arbois: Morteau sausage with a Trousseau.

Day 3: Château-Chalon and Rotalier#

At 09:00, Château-Chalon, 30 minutes south on its limestone spur at about 450 metres, an appellation for vin jaune alone: about 50 hectares in 180 parcels, and a belvedere over the Savagnin below. Forty minutes on, in the Sud-Revermont, the Ganevats of Domaine Ganevat have been in Rotalier since 1650. Jean-François Ganevat came home in 1998 after about a decade at Domaine Jean-Marc Morey in Chassagne-Montrachet with Burgundian barrel habits: Chardonnay two to four years in old barrels, mostly topped up; whole-cluster reds; little or no sulfur; old varieties, Enfariné and Gueuche among them, rescued into field blends. The domaine receives no tourists; we come by appointment, and if the cellar is closed that week, the wines come to the table instead. Lunch at a village auberge, a fruitière for Comté at 18, 24 and 36 months, and at 18:00 the three cheeses against three Savagnins. Dinner is free.

Day 4: Arbois to Beaujeu and the Côte du Py#

A morning hour at the Maison de Louis Pasteur on the Cuisance, the chemist who explained what yeast does; his experimental vineyard is at Montigny. At 11:00 we drive 170 kilometres south, about 2 h, to Beaujeu, Beaujolais’s old capital, for lunch. Gamay has lived on this granite since Philip the Bold banned it from Burgundy on 31 July 1395. Ten minutes on, rooms for three nights at a family-run guesthouse among the vines at Villié-Morgon. At 16:30 we walk the Côte du Py, 358 metres of blue diorite and schist weathering to roche pourrie, rotten rock, the source of Morgon’s iron edge; an hour’s loop. Dinner in the village: a cru Beaujolais at 13 to 14 °C, as it is drunk here, with charcuterie and something braised.

Day 5: Villié-Morgon, Lapierre and Foillard#

At 09:30, Domaine Marcel Lapierre, founded in 1909. Marcel took over in 1973, met Jules Chauvet, and from 1981 made Gamay without added sulfur, commercial yeast or chemical fertiliser. Today Mathieu and Camille Lapierre run the 18 organic hectares with their mother Marie. The cellar is a cold room: whole bunches, two to three weeks of chilled semi-carbonic maceration, old Burgundy barrels, and a Morgon bottled two ways, N with no added sulfur and S with a small dose. At 11:30 the mâchon, Beaujolais’s second breakfast: charcuterie and a 46 cl pot of Morgon, which does for lunch. At 15:00, Jean Foillard, who took over his father’s vines in 1980 and runs them with Agnès; their son Alex works alongside and bottles Brouilly under his own name. Three to four weeks of cool maceration, nothing fined or filtered. Morgon Côte du Py: dark cherry, violet, a stony grip that holds a decade. Dinner in Fleurie.

Day 6: Château Thivin and Mont Brouilly#

Twenty minutes south to Odenas. On 8 June 1877 Zaccharie Geoffray and Marguerite Bernard bought Château Thivin and just under 2 hectares at auction; the family had grown vines since 1743, the oldest estate on Mont Brouilly. Claude-Édouard and Sonja Geoffray lead the sixth generation. The classic counterpoint: hand harvest, partial destemming decided cuvée by cuvée, foudres, a moderate dose of sulfur, and vineyards in conversion to organic farming. Les Sept Vignes, from seven parcels of Côte de Brouilly, is blackcurrant over blue-stone firmness; La Chapelle comes from the steep parcel under the chapel itself. We climb to it, 45 minutes to the 1857 chapel at 484 metres, and picnic at the top. Farewell dinner at 20:00 in Villié-Morgon with one glass from each of the week’s six houses, Jura then Beaujolais, to see whether the veil and the no-sulfur cellar belong on one table. They do.

Day 7: Villié-Morgon to Lyon#

Breakfast among the vines, then 60 kilometres down the Saône to Lyon, about 1 h, Part-Dieu by 11:00 and Saint-Exupéry by noon. Anyone with a late departure joins me in a bouchon for saucisson brioché, quenelles de brochet and a 46 cl pot of Morgon; that lunch is on your own. A clavelin travels well in checked luggage wrapped in a jumper, and these estates rarely ship abroad, so buy what you can carry; at each cellar I will tell you which bottles need five years and which need a Tuesday.

Who this tour is for#

For people who have drunk natural wine in bars and want to stand in the cold cellar behind it, and for those who distrust the word and want the classic register poured beside it: La Pinte and Thivin are on this route so the argument has two sides. The walking is two loops of about an hour and one optional 45-minute climb. Vegetarians eat well in the Jura, where Comté does most of the work; I warn the Beaujolais kitchens in advance. My note on what I pour and why and the piece on sulfites are the homework. For Pinot Noir and Chardonnay, the Burgundy and Champagne week; for Chenin, the Loire. Any of it runs as a private tour for two to twelve.

Practical notes#

Flights: Vienna and Prague fly to Lyon in about 2 h; the Rhônexpress tram reaches Part-Dieu in 30 minutes. Weather: the Jura is among the wettest wine regions in France, about 1,100 mm a year, so pack a waterproof even in June; May and June run 18 to 24 °C in Beaujolais, cooler in Arbois; cellars stay at 12 to 14 °C. The September week catches the Jura before its harvest and Beaujolais mid-picking, so the order of the two Morgon visits may change at short notice, and you may be handed a crate. Shoes for wet marl. Cards work in towns; the smallest cellars prefer cash, and some sell nothing at the door. The FAQ covers single rooms and dietary needs; my note on visiting a winemaker explains why we arrive on time and spit more than we would like.