Domaine Hughes Béguet Silk Blue 2022

Patrice gave up Paris city life and returned to the Jura where he was born with his former wife, Caroline Hughes. They set up a small winery under their house inMesnay, a little village a stone’s throw from Arbois. Committed to sustainable viticulture practices (Demeter certified) and winemaking techniques, he owns 4.5 hectares in the AOC Arbois appellation at over 300metres above sea level, including a plot on the most coveted slopes of Arbois, Les Corvées, and a plot on the famed Côte de Feule in Pupillin.

Patrice has an environmentalist bent, sowing wild flowers, leguminous plants and cereals between vineyard rows. He works his vineyards biodynamically, applying yarrow, nettle, dandelion, chamomile and meadowsweet preparations. So committed is he that he meticulously sources biodynamic straw for his straw wine and even breeds an ancient breed of Alpine sheep to graze on the grass between vines in the winter.

In the cave, he is a keen experimentalist, making use of extended macerations and egg-shaped barrels. All his wines are fermented with indigenous wild yeasts, with some fermentations lasting up to six months. The wines complete their élevage (or "upbringing") in a mixture of stainless steel, concrete eggs and aged old oak barrels. He has always used very little sulphur, if any, for all his wines and from the 2015 vintage, he has used no SO2 at all.

Patrice’s wines are all unique and individual. They are aromatically wild, profoundly textured and generous on the palate