Domaine de la Borde Arbois Pupillin Vin Jaune 2010

Julien Maréschal founded Domaine de la Borde in 2003 with roughly five hectares of steep hillside vines above Pupillin, farmed organically at 300 to 450 meters. Vin Jaune is the Jura's slowest wine, and this is his: Savagnin grown on blue and grey marl, then aged more than six years in barrels deliberately left un-topped, where a veil of native yeast, the voile, forms across the surface and shelters the wine as it slowly concentrates. The 2010 emerged at 14.5 percent with dried white flowers and dried fruit, walnut and hazelnut, a curry-like spice, and a clean, mineral persistence. It comes, as tradition requires, in the squat 62-centiliter clavelin, roughly what remains of a liter after the long élevage. One of France's singular wines, from one of Pupillin's most precise hands.