Domaine Clavelin: Why Burgundy’s Finest Are Choosing the Jura
Cyprien Arlaud and the growing attraction of Jura terroirs for Burgundian vignerons.
For decades, Domaine Clavelin stood as one of the Jura’s quiet constants: a domaine admired by insiders, deeply rooted in place, and uncompromising in its fidelity to the region’s traditions. Long before the Jura became fashionable, Clavelin embodied its full identity — oxidative and ouillé wines, Château-Chalon and vin de paille, savagnin and chardonnay — not as curiosities, but as a coherent, lived culture.
Today, that coherence has become the very reason the estate has drawn one of Burgundy’s most thoughtful vignerons into its orbit.
The recent decision by Cyprien Arlaud, a leading figure in Morey-Saint-Denis, to take over Domaine Clavelin is less a change of ownership than a passing of stewardship. It signals a moment in which the Jura is no longer merely admired from across the Saône, but fully embraced as a place where serious, long-term viticultural lives can unfold.
Arlaud’s arrival in Le Vernois is anything but opportunistic. His relationship with the Jura stretches back decades, shaped by long walks through its vineyards, a deep admiration for its landscapes, and sustained exchanges with local growers. Family roots in Franche-Comté lend the project an added intimacy, grounding it as much in personal geography as in professional ambition. When the opportunity arose to take over Clavelin’s 33 hectares at the beginning of the year, it felt less like a conquest than a recognition.
What makes Domaine Clavelin so compelling — and so emblematic of the Jura’s appeal — is the breadth of its expression. Chardonnay and savagnin form the backbone of the estate, joined by poulsard, trousseau and pinot noir. The entire stylistic spectrum of the region is present: oxidative wines of patience and tension, including Château-Chalon; precise ouillé cuvées; vin de paille, macvin, and even crémant. For a Burgundian vigneron trained in parcel-by-parcel exactitude, Clavelin offers not a rupture, but an expanded vocabulary.
A wider movement, crystallised at Clavelin
Seen in this light, the Clavelin acquisition becomes a focal point of a broader shift. Over the past decade, Burgundy’s established groups seeking growth traditionally looked south to the Mâconnais or Beaujolais, or overseas to regions such as Oregon. The Jura, however, has emerged as a different kind of destination. Boisset marked an early institutional turn with the acquisition of Henri Maire in 2015, followed by Devillard’s takeover of Rolet between 2018 and 2020.
Yet it is the personal, deeply considered projects that best explain the Jura’s pull. The creation of Domaine du Pélican in 2012 by Guillaume d’Angerville remains a defining precedent. Confronted with the impossibility of expanding his historic Volnay holdings, d’Angerville found in the Jura a viticultural landscape that felt both familiar and liberating — rigorous, yet unburdened by the crushing symbolic weight of Burgundy.
That same balance lies at the heart of Domaine Clavelin’s appeal. Its history commands respect, but its culture encourages experimentation. The Jura allows room for risk, curiosity and reinvention, without abandoning discipline. As d’Angerville once observed, Volnay was inherited; the Jura was built. At Clavelin, that distinction remains palpable.
The Jura as a land of conviction
What unites these trajectories is not retreat, but attraction. The Jura is no longer perceived as a secondary stage for Burgundian ambition, but as a region with its own internal logic, capable of sustaining estates of scale, complexity and vision. Encounters with pioneering local figures — among them Stéphane Tissot — have been instrumental in revealing just how far the region can go when interpreted with sensitivity and restraint.
For Cyprien Arlaud, Domaine Clavelin becomes the meeting point of these currents. It is both inheritance and construction, tradition and possibility. More than a symbol of Burgundian interest in the Jura, it stands as proof that the region has reached a new phase: one where its most complete, historically grounded estates are now seen as foundations for the future.
In the evolving map of French fine wine, the Jura is no longer a discreet neighbour. Through domaines like Clavelin, it stands as a destination of conviction — chosen for the possibilities it offers.