Domaine Pignier (Jura)

Domaine Pignier is located in the town of Montaigu , in the Jura department. The winery, which is the only one still in operation in the village, owes its origin to the Carthusian monks who were the first to cultivate vines on hillsides formed by the foothills of the Jura Revermont. In 1794, the estate was sold as “national property” and was acquired by the Pignier family . Today, the ^7th generation has shared three management of the estate since 1991. It has been exploited for centuries in organic farming and manual picking but after the two world wars and diseases, the activity is undermined, the family had to practice polyculture and animal husbandry until the 1970s, when they returned to the monoculture of vines. In 1990, the brothers and sisters decided to return to forgotten techniques by adopting the methods of Léandre , their grandfather, who had no choice in his time but to adapt to what nature offered him to live. . Meetings with geologist Yves Hérody, then with Pierre Masson, biodynamic training advisor, led them to consider organic farming and then biodynamics as an ultimate goal to be achieved. The results are encouraging, the vines are coming back to life and the quality of the grapes produced is excellent. Since 2002, the entire vineyard of 13 hectares of vines has been cultivated biodynamically and certified since 2003. The vines are increasingly planted with different grape varieties coming only with mass selection plants from their private nursery.