Domaine Tissot

Stéphane and Bénédicte Tissot began the biodynamic conversion of their Arbois estate in the 1990s, completing the process under both Demeter and Ecocert certification in 2004. The Jura was not yet fashionable when they made this decision; the region's wines — oxidative Savagnin, unusual Poulsard and Trousseau reds, and the legendary Vin Jaune — were admired by a small circle of enthusiasts and largely ignored by the international market.

What Tissot recognised was that the Jura's unusual soils — blue and grey limestone marls that appear nowhere else in France's significant wine regions — and the region's extreme diurnal temperature variation produced wines of a character that biodynamic farming could intensify rather than smooth away. The decision to convert was a bet on distinctiveness at a time when international wine taste was pulling in the opposite direction.

The estate now farms over 50 hectares of Chardonnay, Savagnin, and the red varieties under full biodynamic management. The En Barberon Chardonnay and the Vin Jaune from Château Chalon have drawn 95 points from Wine Advocate. The oxidative Ouillé and non-ouillé bottlings — terms for whether the barrels are kept topped or allowed to oxidise — give Tissot's range a complexity of style that rewards exploration over time.

The Jura is now one of the most discussed wine regions in the world. Tissot was farming it carefully before the conversation began.