Vin Jaune

Vin jaune ("yellow wine") is the iconic oxidative white of the Jura, a small mountainous wine region in eastern France, made only from the Savagnin grape. It is aged for years in old oak barrels that are deliberately not topped up, protected by a natural film of yeast called the voile that shields the wine while it slowly oxidises — much as the flor does in fino sherry, but with no fortification and no solera. The result is a bone-dry, deep-gold wine of remarkable power and length, smelling intensely of walnut, almond, curry spice and dried fruit. Released only after six years and three months in barrel and bottled in a squat 62-centilitre flask called a clavelin, it is one of France's most distinctive, savoury and long-lived dry whites.