Vin Jaune (French for “yellow wines”), great terroirs or exceptional sweet wines: our Tour de France of regional rankings at auction continues with a trip to the vineyards from the East of France, a wine-growing area with very specific characteristics that make them, therefore, very interesting regions.

As a reminder, in order to establish this first half-year ranking, we decided to keep only the most expensive wine of each property, auctioned on iDealwine. Moreover, if the wine was sold in a magnum, its price is converted to its bottle equivalent to allow a fair comparison between the different wines. Due to digitalization and globalization, vineyards are no longer immune to worldwide amateurs’ lust for discoveries. The Jura has masterfully demonstrated this fact over the last months. The list of wines from this region, auctioned during the first half of 2017 on iDealwine, puts forward one of Jura’s particular features, the famous Vin Jaune, oxidative beverage, so delicate to produce, and bottled in a clavelin (62 cl bottle).

The first place of the ranking is occupied by Pierre Overnoy, “natural wines” leader of the region, and of which we have already spoken, as these wines often hit the headlines of our auction reports during the first half of 2017, reaching €1,560. Epicentre of the production of Vin Jaune, Château-Chalon, Klemens von Metternich’s favourite wine, is also very present in this TOP 20, mainly with old vintages. Second of the ranking is a Chateau-Chalon 1961 from the Fruitière Vinicole (a wine-growers’ cooperative) reaching €294 in May 2017. Jean Macle 1986 sold for €288 in February (#3) and Marius Perron 1973 went under the hammer for €276 (#4).

The enthusiasm of Asian buyers for Jura wines is striking: more than half of the lots in the TOP 20 were shipped to Japan or China. The Land of the Rising Sun, in particular, with the acquisition of the most expensive wine of the ranking, the famous Vin Jaune  from Overnoy, a cuvée that the Americans were already fighting over a few years ago. Even better, the Japanese won nine of the 20 lots on this list! Our customers in Hong Kong won three of these lots, the other bottles going to Great Britain or Spain leaving only five lots for French amateurs.

The “natural” characteristic of Domaine Overnoy is one of the reasons of this enthusiasm. Amateurs have been passionate for such wines for a few months. In the wake of this record auction the wines from Ganevat and Tissot also face exploding demand. The magnum of Côtes-du-Jura Les vignes de mon père 2005 (Ganevat) was indeed auctioned €408, and when brought back to a bottle format, ranks fifth.

In Alsace, the top of the ranking is monopolized by two great wines from exceptional terroirs, and a cuvée that expresses the quintessence of the region’s know-how to produce sweet wines. The first two places of the podium welcome the wines of a great vintage in Alsace, 1983: Riesling Clos Sainte-Hune from Trimbach first for €360 and Pinot Gris in Sélection de Grains Nobles (SGN: selection of noble-rot grapes), from Hugel reaching €156. Followed by a star wine, the grand cru Schoenenbourg 2008 from Domaine Deiss, sold for €134 last April. The Riesling Clos Saint-Urbain 1994 from Domaine Zind-Humbrecht ranks fourth, as it was sold for €108 in March 2017. This wine combines a high quality terroir and is produced in Vendanges Tardives (VT: late harvested grapes). The excellent reputation of Alsatian sweet wines is reflected in the ranking, which lines up ten cuvées produced in VT or SGN. Another remarkable feature of the domains from this region included in this TOP 20: more than half of them are produced in organic or biodynamic. Jean-Michel Deiss, an inexhaustible defender of the notion of “terroir” in Alsace and a great figure of biodynamics, stands in the forefront of world-renowned domains: Zind-Humbrecht, Weinbach and Ostertag. So many names, you are likely to hear from in future auctions.

 Top 20 of Jura-Savoie wines

Top 20 of Alsace wines

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Read further on iDealwine Le Blog:

• Top 20 of Loire wines
• Top 20 of Rhône wines
• Top 20 of wines from Languedoc, Roussillon, Provence and Corsica
• First semester auction: already more than 56,000 bottles auctioned on iDealwine