For such a young wine grower, Benjamin Benoit speaks with the calm authority of a wine producer with twice his experience. But then, Benjamin did have to find his feet quicker than most. Aged just 23 in 2019, he found himself at the helm of his family’s old vineyards in Pupillin, just south of Arbois, after his father unexpectedly passed away. Then, fame came knocking far sooner than expected when, in 2021, the young grower was awarded Guide Hachette’s Winemaker of the Year, an award he accepted as a tribute to his late father.

For three generations, the Benoit family sold grapes to the Fruitière Vinicole d’Arbois —the local cooperative—until Denis Benoit built a cellar and began making wine, debuting with a Vin Jaune in 2004. While his father gradually progressed in the Jura and, by all accounts, became a highly competent winemaker, Benjamin studied viticulture and winemaking in Beaune. His first internship, in 2014, was with Charles Lachaux. Even back then, that was the vineyard equivalent of a Harvard education. His second was with the talented Amélie Berthaut in Fixin, and he also worked with Berthaut’s close friend Nicolas Faure, while also squeezing in a vintage in Marlborough. “When they saw my CV,” recalls Benjamin, “they insisted I work with the Pinot!” 

Today, Benjamin farms the full spectrum of his family’s patchwork of 6.25 hectares, all rooted on Pupillin’s moderate to steep hillsides. These include some of the famous hilltop village’s oldest vines, not least some close-planted rows of Chardonnay (of the local Melon à Queue Rouge) planted by his great-grandmother. He has not wasted any time putting what he learned in Burgundy into practice: embracing organics, encouraging native grasses between the rows, using herbal teas and citrus oil tinctures, and raising his canopies to avoid trimming. Then, he converted his pruning to Guyot Poussard with one cane (most Jura vineyards run with two curved canes per vine to maximise yields) and employed eight people full-time throughout the season for only six hectares of vines. In all but the steepest vineyards like Les Chambines, which is ploughed by horse, he uses a lightweight tractor on caterpillar tracks to avoid soil compaction. Since returning, he has not only invested heavily in his vineyards but also built a new winery! Rather than continue his father’s and the region’s tradition of blending multiple plots, Benjamin has decided on separate lieu-dit bottlings, with the goal of revealing the varied faces of Pupillin’s complex geology and terroir.

The famous, tongue-in-cheek sign at the entrance to Pupillin proudly declares this small, rural village as the ‘World Capital of Ploussard’, the lacy and enigmatic Jurassien variety that covers only 300 hectares of the world’s landmass. As Paul Wasserman explains, Pupillin’s preoccupation with the variety did not happen accidentally. “Most of the Jura is on grey marls from the Jurassic, a terroir where Savagnin and Chardonnay thrive. But in Pupillin, faults have exposed an unusually high proportion (60%) of older marls from the Triassic. These marls are ideally suited to the cultivation of Ploussard, which is why three-quarters of the vineyards planted to the variety in the Jura are located in Pupillin and neighbouring Arbois.”

Benjamin individually bottles no fewer than six Ploussard lieux-dits (ranging from 400 to 1300 bottles each) and uses his village’s historic name for the grape rather than the more common Poulsard. You have only to taste his filigreed, coral-coloured Les Chambines next to the darker, fleshier Côte de Feule to understand his thinking. Chardonnay also plays a starring role alongside smaller plantings of Trousseau, Savagnin and Pinot Noir. Using only indigenous yeasts, the aging varies by variety, with Benjamin using only old, large-format barrels or tanks to preserve Ploussard’s panoply of delicate fruits and subtle spice. 

For the same reason, while he uses whole bunches for Pinot Noir and Trousseau, he hand destems the Ploussard using the traditional, wood-mounted crible table. The Pinot Noir and Trousseau are punched down only towards the end of fermentation, and all the reds are pressed in a vertical (basket) press. All the whites are made in the ouillé (‘topped up’) style. The Chardonnays are pressed as whole bunches before fermenting on high solids, crafted much like any great address in the Côte de Beaune. While Benjamin is happy, for now, with a little new oak for the Chardonnays, he dislikes any oak aromas for his Savagnin, which are aged in old Burgundy barrels that impart no flavour. None of the wines is fined or filtered, and sulphur is kept as low as possible, with additions typically made only after malolactic fermentation and at bottling. 

Meeting with Benjamin and tasting his wines, it is easy to see why he is being touted as one of the rising stars of French wine-growing. He strives to emulate the practices and quality of those growers he admires most. What he has achieved so quickly and at such a young age is already highly impressive. But it is still early days—while his first releases have been wonderful, we are super excited about what is to come. For now, Benjamin’s wines are already being offered by top importers around the globe. They are listed alongside Jura’s established icons in the top restaurants of Europe and the United States, which tells you everything you need to know.