Patrice Beguet

Patrice Béguet was born in the Jura but spent years in Paris working as a mathematician and software engineer. In 2005 he walked away from that career, retrained as an oenologist, and moved back to Jura with his British-born wife Caroline Hughes. They set up a small winery beneath their house in Mesnay, near Arbois. The first vintage under their name was in January 2009 - so the domaine (now sometimes styled Hughes-Béguet) is still relatively young.

Holdings are small: around three and a half to four and a half hectares across the communes of Arbois, Mesnay, and Pupillin. Older vines, above three hundred metres. Among the parcels: Les Corvées in Arbois, and a plot on the Côte de Feule in Pupillin - the same hillside that made Overnoy-Houillon famous.

The grape mix is Jura classic, skewed toward whites. Savagnin and Chardonnay dominate; Ploussard (Pupillin's spelling of Poulsard) and Trousseau for the reds. Certified organic (AB) and biodynamic (Demeter). Hand harvest, native yeasts, long fermentations - sometimes as long as six months - old wood, little or no added sulphur. Patrice has said publicly that he will never use any synthetic product.

Savagnin is mostly ouillé (topped-up); some cuvées show oxidative influence. Named cuvées are a jazz lover's catalogue: So True (Trousseau), Straight No Chaser, Silk Blue, Go Together Rouge, Orange Was the Colour of Her Dress (Savagnin), Oh Yeah, and a Côte de Feule Ploussard. No released Vin Jaune yet as far as I can tell.

Patrice sits among the younger, smaller Jura naturalists. Owning a slice of the Côte de Feule - the Pupillin hillside Overnoy-Houillon is known for - puts him on geographically prestigious ground, and the low-sulphur, biodynamic orientation aligns him with peers like Tony Bornard and Les Dolomies.