Cellier Saint-Benoît
After training with some of Burgundy’s elite winemakers, including Nicholas Faure, Charles Lachaux, and Amélie Berthaut, Benjamin Benoît’s roster of site-specific wines have cemented Cellier Saint Benoît as the Jura’s most exciting new domaine.
For three generations the Benoît family sold grapes to the local co-operative until Benjamin’s father Denis built a cellar and began making wine in 2004. Taking over his father’s vineyards in 2019 at the age of 23, Benjamin introduced organic and regenerative farming as well as artisanal winemaking techniques, pushing the quality of the domaine’s wines to new heights.
Benjamin farms 6ha of traditional Jura varieties – Chardonnay, Savagnin, Ploussard, Trousseau, and Pinot Noir – across some of Pupillin’s oldest vineyards. Fermented with ambient yeasts and aged in old oak barrels in his brand-new cellar, production is so tiny that each bottle is numbered individually.
Made in the ouillé (“topped up”) style, Benjamin crafts numerous single-parcel expressions of Chardonnay and Savagnin, which marry beautifully ripe fruit with herbal freshness and racy acidity. While many of the region’s Ploussard bottlings are blends of several lieux-dits, Benjamin is one of the few vignerons to bottle his sites individually, allowing them to express the complex nuances of their terroirs.
In 2022, Cellier Saint Benoît defied a challenging warm and dry growing season to produce an array of remarkably finessed wines. Turning the heads of critics and Jura aficionados, this is rapidly becoming one of the region’s most sought-after allocations.
Chardonnay ‘Courbes Raies’ 2022 (£73)
Focused with tangy yellow fruit and a salty mineral edge.
Chardonnay ‘Les Charots’ 2022 (£78)
Flint, dried lemon, and yellow apple – concentrated, yet razor focused.
Chardonnay ‘La Marcette’ 2022 (£82)
Peach and blossom intensity braced by solid backbone of acidity. Superb.
Chardonnay ‘Viandris’ 2022 (£100)
Dried flowers and ripe orchard fruit. A coiled spring of energy.
Savagnin Naturé ‘Chambines’ 2022 (£80)
Lovely ripe fruit is off-set by herbal freshness and bitter pith.
Pinot Noir ‘Courbes Raies’ 2022 (£88)
Pretty floral perfume married with spicy nuances. Polished and uplifting.
Ploussard ‘Chambines’ 2022 (£67)
Ethereal, poised Ploussard – red fruit, spices, and herbs all in harmony.
Ploussard ‘Viandris’ 2022 (£86)
From Benoît’s oldest Ploussard vines. Tinged with blood orange and rose hips.
Ploussard ‘Côte de Feule’ 2022 (£100)
Ripe berry fruit and spice tones. Harmonious and inviting.
Trousseau ‘Gryphées’ 2022 (£88)
Blossoms with dark fruit and earth. So fresh and juicy, yet built for the long haul.
Vin Jaune 2014 (£180)
Powerful curry leaf and smoky aromatics – A-class Vin Jaune.
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