Domaine de la Touraize is a family estate in Arbois, in the Jura, run by André-Jean and Héléana Morin. The Morin family has worked vines here for eight generations, with roots going back to 1704. For much of the 20th century the family delivered grapes to the local cooperative, but in 2009 André-Jean chose a different path: he left the co-op to control the work from vineyard to bottle. He sold part of the family vineyards to fund the cellar, then built the winery step by step. In 2016, Héléana left her job as a nurse to join the domaine full time.

What matters most here is the idea that wine begins in the vineyard. The estate farms 10 hectares in historic Arbois sites, works with the classic Jura grapes, and follows organic and biodynamic methods. Soil work is done mechanically and by hand, harvests are manual, and no chemical weedkillers are used. In the cellar, fermentations start with native yeasts, chaptalization and other additives are avoided, and the wines are bottled without fining or filtration, with only a light use of sulfur when needed. The name Touraize comes from an old family parcel, and the ammonite on the label reflects André-Jean’s childhood habit of picking fossils from the vineyard soils behind his father’s plough. It is a good summary of the domaine itself: deeply local, patient, and closely tied to the land.