The 1973 Marius Perron Château-Chalon is, at over fifty years from harvest, one of the oldest commercially available Vin Jaune expressions in this catalogue and among the most historically remarkable. The 1973 Jura vintage was cool and challenging, producing wines of moderate concentration but excellent natural acidity and mineral freshness that have provided the structural foundation for a fifty-year development arc of extraordinary complexity. In Château-Chalon specifically, where the Syndicat des Producteurs exercises its rare prerogative to declassify the entire appellation in poor vintages (most recently in 1974 and 1984), the fact that 1973 was approved for the Château-Chalon appellation designation confirms that the Syndicat judged the grapes to be of sufficient quality for this most demanding Jura appellation. Over fifty years, the wine will have passed through the sous voile ageing programme, subsequent bottle development and the natural evolution of a Vin Jaune of exceptional age into a state of complexity that transcends the conventional categories of white wine description.

Vin Jaune from Château-Chalon at fifty years of age is a proposition for which there is no real comparison in any other wine tradition: the sous voile oxidative ageing, combined with the Savagnin variety’s extraordinary structural resilience, the Château-Chalon terroir’s mineral depth and the natural freshness of the finest cool-vintage wines in this zone, creates a combination of factors that can sustain and even improve wines for many decades beyond the expectation of any other still white wine in existence. The 1973, with its cooler, more mineral character and excellent natural acidity, may prove to be a more intellectually rewarding experience at this age than a warmer, more concentrated year whose primary richness would have been fully absorbed decades ago.

A 1973 Marius Perron Château-Chalon, offered alongside the 1982 from the same producer in this batch, provides one of the most extraordinary comparative Vin Jaune experiences available from any commercial source: a contrast between the warm, more generous 1982 and the cool, more mineral 1973, both at a stage of development that no other wine style can reach or sustain, from a respected traditional producer of this unique appellation.

Amber with a profoundly complex and evolved nose of walnuts, preserved lemon, old sherry-vinegar mineral, saffron, tea, dried mushroom, hazelnut cream and the extraordinary geological mineral depth that defines aged Château-Chalon at its most fully developed. Full-bodied with remarkable natural freshness, extraordinary persistence and a finish of near-geological mineral complexity. Drink now through 2040 and beyond.