D'Arlay Côtes du Jura Vin de Paille 1998

What better wine to celebrate Valentine's than with Château d'Arlay’s labour of love – the lusciously sweet Jura speciality, Vin de Paille? Alain de Laguiche, d'Arlay’s current owner and a descendant of its founding family, painstakingly dries biodynamically farmed grapes on racks for 3-to-4 months, before slow pressing and fermentation in cask for 3 years.

The resulting wines are matured in the château’s 17th-century cellars until Alain chooses to release them – often significantly later than other producers. Case in point: a trio of sleeping beauties from 1998, 1999, and 2001, woken from their slumber and ready to offer a mesmerising bouquet of exotic fruit mixed with tobacco smoke, earth, and spiced bread.