Joseph Dorbon, “Les Bernardines” Arbois Rouge

We twice rolled out the red carpet for Dorbon in 2018 and 2019 and, like ravenous paparazzi, every bottle was snapped up in a flash. Unfortunately, that opportunity did not come in 2020, but when you’re new on the winemaking scene and already being discussed in the same breath as Jura’s finest (which are among the most sought-after labels in the sommelier world) the agonizing waiting game is to be expected. It’s a bittersweet feeling, certainly, but his small lineup of “culty” wines is well worth the wait: These generously priced wines shatter France’s price-to-quality scale, (2) they read more like polished, high-end Burgundy, and (3) they’re produced in the smallest of quantities which makes savoring a bottle all the more satisfying.In case you are wondering, Dorbon’s microscopic annual production isn’t by clever design or ploy: The man only owns three hectares of vines, of which a third are planted to red, and from that, he bottles just two cuvées. One of those is today’s fusion of