I also retasted the 2017 En Spois Vin Jaune, from a warm year with low yields because of the frost. The wine was bottled at 16% alcohol after the élevage in barrel and feels more open and oxidative than other 2017 Vin Jaunes, a little more obvious and straightforward.
Reviewed by: Luis Gutiérrez

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

92 pts Vinous
Drinking Window 2027 - 2052
The concentrated 2017 Vin Jaune Arbois En Spois touches the full-bodied palate with finely delineated flavors and lively acidic drive. Walnuts, bread dough, wet stones and spicy subtleties come alive. Classically styled and round, the well-crafted 2017 can be enjoyed over the next decade. - By Nicolas Greinacher on July 2024

The wines of Bénédicte & Stéphane Tissot continue to reign among Jura’s finest. Biodynamically certified since 2004, the Tissots produce about 40 cuvées from 52 hectares of vineyards, including a few reds, Crémants, Marcs and Macvins. Their approach highlights the specific matches between grape variety (massal selection) and terroir rather than blending everything. For instance, with Savagnin for Vin Jaune, you’ll find En Spois (Triassic soils with an eastern aspect), La Vasée (Triassic and lias soils with a northern aspect), La Mailloche (compacted lias soils), Les Bruyères (Triassic soils with a southern aspect) and a Château-Chalon (a separate AOC). To ensure optimal aging of their oxidatively made wines, they naturally carry out malolactic conversion and make sure no residual sugar remains. The cellar temperature can be slightly increased if fermentations are slow or to address remnant residual sugar. All wines are vinified at the winery except for the two Crémants du Jura, for which they outsource disgorging and bottling. Crémant makes up about a quarter of their entire production. The two zero-dosage examples tasted on this occasion are delicious, especially the standout Extra Brut Blanc de Blancs BBF, a single-varietal Chardonnay blending two vintages with three to four years on lees prior to disgorgement. Intentional reductiveness as a stylistic element remains a recurring feature in many of Tissot’s topped-up wines, such as the 2022 Patchwork, Les Graviers, Sursis and Clos de la Tour de Curon. This reductiveness can mellow with age, as seen in the magnificent 2020 Clos de la Tour de Curon (sourced from densely planted vines on pure limestone soil).

In typical Tissot fashion, Stéphane can't resist experimenting, so he now has three vineyard sites, bottled separately, for Vin Jaune, all made in the classical fashion, all expressing their different terroir despite the overriding presence of the flor. One is supremely mineral, one closed and brooding, and this is perhaps the most "typical," if anything Stéphane does can be so named.