Patrice Béguet's small Jura domaine in Mesnay - an ex-software engineer turned biodynamic vigneron, jazz-titled cuvées from Arbois, Mesnay, and the Côte de Feule in Pupillin.
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.

Big Bunch Theory Fresh Impression Red

Big Bunch Theory Fresh Impression Red

Big Bunch Theory Fresh Impression Red

Big Bunch Theory Go Together Red

Big Bunch Theory Go Together Red

Big Bunch Theory Go Together Red

Fresh Impression White

Fresh Impression White

I'm forever blowing bubbles

Oh Yeah

Silk Blue

Three views of a secret

Three views of a secret