Bénédicte et Stéphane Tissot
In the small village of Montigny-l’Arsur, not far from Arbois in eastern France, Stéphane Tissot and his wife Bénédicte run one of the most talked-about estates in the Jura region within the wine world. Two decades ago, Jura wines were simply a curiosity that most people outside France had never heard of. Today they are held in high regard by sommeliers around the world.
History
The winery is named after Stéphane’s parents, André and Mireille Tissot, who founded it in 1962. Stéphane grew up on the estate; in his own words, he was cleaning wine barrels even as a child, and he harvested his first vintage in 1989, when he was just 19 years old. His meticulous and careful work in the cellar quickly attracted attention at a time when Jura wines were still considered simple and inconsistent in quality. Benedict officially joined him in managing the estate in 1990, and they have been working side by side ever since, although Stefan remains the face most closely associated with these wines.
Vineyards
The estate cultivates around 35 hectares spread across the varied landscape of the Jura; a team of 15 people works here full-time all year round, assisted by students in the summer and by around 50 grape pickers during the harvest.
The vineyards include some of the region’s most prized terroirs: Les Bruyères, La Mayoche, En Barberon and Curot – plots that Stéphane has taken care to map out and divide plot by plot, rather than blending them all together.
Terroir
The Jura is situated on a narrow strip of land opposite Burgundy’s Côte d’Or across the Saône valley, with a similar cool continental climate characterised by wet winters and warm, mostly dry summers. The vines here grow on a mosaic of marl and limestone soils at an altitude of generally around 300 metres; it is precisely this combination, plot by plot, that gives the wines their completely different characteristics, and it was this that prompted Stéphane to start dividing his vineyards into separate cuvées, rather than working with broad blends.
Grapes
The estate cultivates the classic Jura varieties: Chardonnay and Savagnin for white wines, as well as Pinot Noir, Trousseau and Poulsard for reds. Many of the vines are old, whilst new plantings are carried out using mass selection, propagating cuttings from the estate’s existing vines rather than using commercial clones.
Winemaking
Since 1999, the estate has practised organic farming , it was one of the first in the Jura to switch to this system, and, since 2004, biodynamic farming, certified by Demeter. In the cellar, a minimal intervention approach is adopted: fermentation with natural yeasts, minimal use of sulphur and a conscious avoidance of anything that might blur the differences between the cuvées.
The result is an extensive range of around 28 different wines, many of which are produced to highlight the characteristics of each terroir, reflecting the mosaic of soils across the estate.
Wines
The range covers the full spectrum of Jura wines: dry white and red wines from individual plots, the oxidative ‘Vin Jaune’ (Vin Jaune), the sweet ‘Vin de Paille’, as well as ‘Macvin’ and ‘Crémant du Jura, fortified and sparkling wines characteristic of the region. Among these, wines from specific vineyards, such as La Mailloche and Les Bruyères, have become benchmarks that have demonstrated to the entire wine world just how significant the Jura’s terroir can be.
