Jurançon

Drink Jurançon before you die! Why? 

French Royals were traditionally baptised with this sweet, luscious nectar to bless them with a long, joyful, healthy life.    

Wine has been made in this region of Southwest France since at least the 1300s. Around this time local authorities started identifying and valuing specific and favored vineyard sites. Making it was one of the first French wine regions to rank the quality level of their vineyards in a classification, or cru, system. Chapeau and merci to these ingenious and foresightful medieval wine lovers!

Vineyards in the Jurançon, Southwest France. Bucket List Wines: wines to try before you die
Vineyards in the Jurançon, Southwest France | © Richard Semik / www.stock.adobe.com


The wine is made from the little known, small, thick skinned and utterly delicious grape variety Petit Manseng. The variety has propensity to concentrate sugar and acidity along with tropical fruit flavors giving Petit Manseng the potential for producing high quality, aromatic, sweet wines. They can have considerable finesse with intense floral perfume and flavors of mango, pineapple, and guava. Locally, these wines are frequently enjoyed at the start of a meal and often with foie gras. Yum!

In 1553, France’s future King, Henri IV, was baptised using Jurançon wine. He was often referred to as Henri le Grand, le bon roi Henri, and, being a lifelong lothario, le vert galant.

Petit Manseng grapes hand harvested in Southwest France for sweet white Jurancon wine. Bucket List Wines: wines to try before you die
Petit Manseng grapes hand harvested for sweet white Jurancon wine | © Alison Cornford / www.stock.adobe.com 

It was believed the wine was the source of this immensely popular king’s diplomatic genius, charm, and long joy-filled life and, as such, it became tradition for royal babies to have their lips moistened with Jurançon during their baptism.

Whether or not Jurançon wine was the source of this bon vivant's long, joyous and vigorous life is hard to say with 100% certainty. But, it's probably best not to leave things to chance and start prescribing yourself a regular dose of Jurançon today!  

Here's four I'd recommend. Click on the links to find a bottle near you!

    1. Domaine Bordenave Cuvee des Dames 
    2. Chateau Jolys Cuvee Jean 
    3. Domaine Bellegarde 'La Comete' 
    4. Clos Lapeyre 'La Magendia de Lapeyre'