94pts Wine Advocate
There are two different bottlings of the NV Crémant du Jura Extra Brut Blanc de Blancs BBF (2019-2020 base), one refermented with Champagne yeasts and the other with indigenous ones, specified on the back label as either classical fermentation (Champagne yeasts) or spontaneous fermentation (indigenous yeasts). This is the last time it's produced in both ways, 50% each, because the next one will be exclusively produced with the local yeasts. Both have the same base wine, Chardonnay aged in barrel and then put to referment in bottle, where it was kept with lees for four years. The one with Champagne yeasts had a lot of bubbles and gas, and it's sharper and more jovial. To be able to referment it with indigenous yeasts, Tissot uses frozen grape juice from his vines, and the result is purer and with subtler bubbles, spicier and more Jura. Both are a bit nutty from the slow oxidation, the one with indigenous yeasts feeling more serious. Drink Date: 2025 - 2031 Reviewed by: Luis Gutiérrez

Soils: 60% of clay of the Triassic era, 40% Limestone from the Bajocien era. Single parcel of 3.21 acres with a western exposure.
Farming: Vines farmed with no use of herbicides or phytosanitary products. Use of sulfites and copper as well as plant infusions. Organic compost made at the estate. Traditional working of the soil. Manual harvesting in cases. Strict sorting on a sorting table. Certified organic Ecocert and Biodynamic Demeter.
Winemaking: 75% of the wine comes from the 2014 vintage aged 14 months in 228 liters old French oak barrels. The remaining 25% comes from the 2015 vintage aged 3 months in vat. Blended and bottled in January 2016. Ageing “sur lattes” during 4 years and disgorged in November 2020. “0” dosage – Extra Brut.

I love the rollercoaster tasting with Stéphane Tissot, but I always struggle with the speed and quantity of wines tasted. Furthermore, he doesn't have Wi-Fi and dislikes any electrical appliances in his cellar, so he doesn't want me to use my laptop. So, every year I have to scribble frantically in a notepad, with the scrawled notes becoming more and more unreadable as the tasting advances. By the time we get to the Vin Jaune, which for him is the greatest expression of Jura wine, I'm exhausted and barely managing to catch up with the speed.

This time, I proposed to start the tasting with the Vin Jaune to give them more attention and respect, as we would be fresher and more alert and I'd be able to pay more attention and capture better notes. But Stéphane refused, "No, this is my house, and we do like I say!" It's all in a nice and friendly tone, but it's still a little annoying, especially since this year, he surprised me with EVEN MORE Vin Jaune than ever. I believe he uncorked some 14 bottles! Some had been aging a long time (12 YEARS!!) and would merit a single article just for them, which I hope one day to write to do justice to these world-class wines. But not this time...

The visit always starts with a running tour of some of his vineyards and the explanation between Lias and Trias clays and marls, then a sitting-down tasting of bottled wines in the cellar's tasting room, with intermittent runs through the cellars to taste unbottled wines from cask, and it finishes five hours later with chicken in Vin Jaune sauce with morels, Comté cheese and some beers and with me in despair, revisiting some of the unbelievable bottles of Vin Jaune he had opened...

His son Aymeric has started making naturally fermented beer in his brewery in the center of Besançon under the brand Levain, and he has had a long-standing collaboration with Cantillon in Brussels, where they produce a lambic beer called La Vie est Belge (life is Belgian), a pun on Stéphane's usual greeting, La vie est belle! (life is beautiful).

He understands Jura's geology and terroir better than anyone, and he explains it in his own unique way. When we tasted the Vin Jaune, he started raving about the nonsense of the 0.62-liter bottle, which is the amount that remains from one liter of wine after it ages in barrel. "Beers in Perú (Cusqueña) come in 0.62-liter bottles!" he shouted. "The Clavelin is clearly a Spanish bottle size!" Half a day with him is an experience you should have at least once in your life. You have to love Stéphane Tissot!

Published: Sep 11, 2025