Jurançon & Jurançon Sec AOCs are white wines from 25 communes in the Pyrénées-Atlantiques department, between Pau and the Pyrenees in the heart of the Basque Country in South West France. Jurançon became an AOC in 1936, one of the first in France. The production zone covers a surface area of over 1,000ha around Saint-Jean Pied de Port. 

Communes | Abos. | Arbus. | Artiguelouve. | Aubertin. | Bosdarros. | Cardesse. | Cuqueron. | Estialescq. | Gan. | Gelos. | Haut-de-Bosdarros. | Jurançon. | Lacommande. | Lahourcade. | Laroin. | Lasseube. | Lasseubetat. | Lucq-de-Béarn. | Mazères-Lezons. | Monein. | Narcastet. | Parbayse. | Rontignon. | Saint-Faust. | Uzos.

Vineyard area & wine production: 2002 35,516hl, 75% of which was Jurançon Sec, from 100ha (Guide Hachette des Vins 2004, p.828-9). | 2016 57,650hl of Jurançon and Jurançon Sec combined, from 1,294 ha (source: Customs viticulture service).

Wines

Jurançon AOC

 Jurançon Sec AOC: Late picked from grapes which undergo ‘passerilage sur pied’, grapes shrivelled on the vine.

Wineries

No certification: Domaine Cauhapé.

Bibliography

Oz Clarke, Oz Clarke Wine A-Z (Pavilion, 2015), p.149.

Oxford Companion to Wine 4th edition ed. Jancis Robinson MW and Julia Harding MW (Oxford University Press, 2015).

Tom Stevenson, The Sotheby’s Wine Encyclopedia 5th Edition (Dorling Kindersley, 2011).