Tony Bornard

Tony Bornard is the son of Philippe Bornard, one of the pioneers of Jura natural wine and a direct neighbour (and acolyte) of Pierre Overnoy in Pupillin - the village most closely associated with what "natural wine in the Jura" has meant for the past forty years. Tony studied oenology, worked harvests in France, the US, Australia, and New Zealand, and returned to Pupillin in 2011. He set up his own small domaine (around 2.5 hectares) in 2013 and worked in parallel with his father until Philippe's retirement in 2017, when the two operations were merged under Tony's name.

The estate is now around eleven hectares, certified organic, farmed biodynamically. Pupillin is the self-proclaimed world capital of Ploussard (the local name for Poulsard), and it shows in the plantings: Ploussard, Trousseau, Savagnin, Chardonnay, Pinot Noir, plus the almost-lost Melon à Queue Rouge - a variety the Bornard family (Tony's grandfather in particular) helped preserve, and which Tony continues to champion.

Philosophy is strict Pupillin natural. Spontaneous native-yeast fermentation. No additives. Frequent whole-cluster. Sulphur either absent or kept under ten milligrams per litre total - trace levels. Increasingly, Tony declassifies to Vin de France rather than submit to the AOC Arbois Pupillin / Côtes du Jura tasting panels, which have a long history of rejecting Pupillin's more extreme bottlings. The gesture mirrors Overnoy-Houillon.

The cuvées are plot-specific. Le Ginglet (a Trousseau - the name suggests something lively and jumpy in dialect). La Chamade (Ploussard). Le Garde-Corps (Trousseau). Melon Le Rouge-Queue (Melon à Queue Rouge). Various Savagnin expressions, including bottlings aged in Italian terracotta amphora. Tant Mieux, a low-alcohol Ploussard pét-nat at around 9%. And, when the vintage permits, the traditional Vin Jaune and Macvin. Production is around fifty-five thousand bottles a year.

Tony's voice is slowly becoming distinct from his father's - tighter parcellaire work, the amphora experiments, minimalist labels where Philippe's signature red-fox artwork once dominated. The Pupillin grammar is the same as Overnoy-Houillon's; the accent is his own.