We first met Didier back in the early 2010s in the chaos of the Loire salons. Working our way through the fine list of Jura growers on show, the electric poise of Didier’s wines made a real impression on us – indeed, it was he who, with a wink, relieved us of a crumpled €50 in exchange for a mixed case that served as our souvenir of the weekend. A lot has changed at his domaine since then – no longer working under Côtes-du-Jura, Didier has embraced the growth of hybrid varietals, which are not permitted under the AOC. In a somewhat iconoclastic flourish, he has also done away with traditional cork closures in favour of screw-caps. His son Jules is now his partner in the business. The wines are as brilliant as we remember. Well over a decade after our first encounter, we’re so happy to now be working with Didier – a straight-talking, deep thinker who, by his own admission, ‘does not like problems’.
In a region with the prestige of Jura - the small domaines clustered around Arbois-Pupillin and their even tinier yields, the who’s-who of prized cult growers and so-called unicorn wines - Didier’s path is a curious one, at first glance perhaps hard to get one’s head around. But for all that Jura is built on the holy quartet of Chardonnay, Savagnin, Poulsard and Trousseau, it is these signature varietals that, with the changing climate, Didier now feels are compromised in their long-term cultivation here. Describing things in terms one might associate with the palliative care of a loved one, he speaks of his concern regarding the dozens of sprays of copper and sulphur required in an average year to protect these vines from disease. It is a process of intervention at odds with his completely additive-free approach in the cellar, so he has decided to make the bold break with tradition in favour of a sustainable path for the future. In a typically audacious remark, he declares, ‘there is no such thing as tradition’.
