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Ah, the Jura! For most Americans, this French region calls up images of dinosaurs and scenes from the film Jurassic Park. Yet for wine lovers, this region brings forth memories of delicious and unusually long-lived (mostly white) wine. How long-lived? Try a Savignin from 1959 that I savored at a recent tasting of Jura wines.

The wine was produced by the two brothers who own Domaine Jean Bourdy, and as I tasted it, that soliloquy from the film Sideways came to mind (the one in which the Mia character says that when she tastes old wines she thinks about all the people who picked the grapes and made the wine, wondering about the weather and if any of them were still alive).

Unlike Mia, when I taste old wine, I’m thinking more about the acidity, the balance, and what keeps the freshness in the wine more than anything else. I absolutely could not believe that a half-century year old wine could be so fresh and vibrant, yet then again, it must be the combination of the cold northern region and the very special soil of the Jura. And of course the wine probably has not moved out of its freezing cave since it was laid away.

Domaine Jean Bourdy was created between 1475 and 1500, and the brothers represent the family’s 15th generation. Their small village, Arlay, is located in the heart of the Jura’s vineyard with all vines (10 hectares) made with the biodynamic technique since 2005. “We vinify wine in the traditional method, and also exactly how it was done at the end of the 19th century,” the brothers tell me, adding the wines are untreated and are always put in old casks for maturation.

The Jura is one of the oldest vineyard areas in France, dating back to the sixth century. The Phoenicians brought vine cuttings with them. The climate is continental and the soils are similar to Burgundy. Of the five major grape varieties in the region, only Chardonnay and Pinot Noir will sound familiar. The others include (white) Savagnin and (red) Trousseau and Ploussard.

Savagnin is a grape with a remarkable personality. Walk into any sophisticated wine shop and tell the clerk you are going to test someone’s blind tasting skills, and they will put a bottle of a wine called Vin Jaune, made from the Savagnin grape, in your hand. Vin Jaune (old wine) is a specialty of the Jura and is something of an acquired taste. After a normal fermentation, the wine is left in ancient wooden barrels to age for a minimum of six years. A layer of yeast forms on top of the wine (similar to the flor that develops in the production of Sherry). The flor prevents the wines from becoming oxidized too quickly and gives a nutty flavor to the wine.

“What would I pair this with?” I ask myself absently, somewhat surprised when a fellow wine taster near the table answers: “Comte cheese and walnuts.” And he’s right. The rich, slightly bitter finish of the walnuts and creamy cheese would go quite well with this sherry-like wine. Now Ploussard, the red wine, is usually paired with Pinot Noir to add color and structure to the blend. Trousseau is more robust and deeply colored than Ploussard and I have heard yet not verified it is sold by the glass at the five-star restaurant Jean-Georges.

Of course, you can find many types of wines from the Jura … including Cremant du Jura, their version of sparkling wine, and dessert wines (called straw wines or Vin de Paille). Wines from the Jura are exotic and, for the most part, affordable. In any event, visiting a wine bar and asking to taste a wine from the Jura represents a delicious and exotic pleasure.

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