The major gathering of the Jura wine region
Every first weekend in February, a village in the Jura becomes the capital of wine. For its 28th edition, the Percée du Vin Jaune is setting up its barrels in Arlay, among the vineyard slopes. This page also tells the full story of the festival: every edition since 1997, its host villages and record auction sales.
2027 programme
The organisers announce the hour-by-hour schedule a few weeks before the event. At present, only the dates, host village and ticket release have been confirmed. Tickets are due to go on sale in October 2026. We will update this page as soon as the official programme is released.
Check for the official programmeOpen Arlay in Google Maps to plan your route and locate the village before the festival weekend.
Arlay is served by the A39 and the N83 and N78 roads. Allow around 1 hour 15 minutes from Dijon, 1 hour 20 minutes from Chalon-sur-Saône, 1 hour 5 minutes from Bourg-en-Bresse, 1 hour 40 minutes from Besançon and under 2 hours from Lyon. In February, check road conditions on Inforoute 39 before setting off.
The most convenient station is Lons-le-Saunier. Packages combining coach travel and admission are available from the organisers' transport partner. The nearest international airport is Genève.
Access to the site is controlled and certain items are prohibited: leave them in your vehicle. A Sécurité routière stand offers blood alcohol testing; handing over your keys entitles you to a breathalyser and a tasting glass.
Everyone aged 18 or over needs a ticket, even if they are not drinking: the ticket is primarily for admission to the site. It includes a souvenir glass and ten tasting vouchers. Admission is free, with no ticket required, for under-18s, who must be accompanied by an adult and do not receive tasting vouchers. Tickets are sold online and through partners, never at the entrance. Tickets for 2027 are due to go on sale in October 2026.
Information compiled from the organisers' official announcements. Prices, times and conditions may change: always check the official Percée du Vin Jaune website . Excessive alcohol consumption is harmful to your health; drink in moderation.
See also: things to do in Arlay · the Jura events calendar · things to do this weekend in the Jura
Understanding vin jaune
Vin jaune is the most distinctive of France's great wines. It is made from a single grape variety, savagnin, grown on the clay and marl slopes of Revermont and the Vignoble jurassien: Arbois, Château-Chalon, L'Étoile and Côtes du Jura, the four appellations authorised to produce it. Its colour is a deep gold, almost amber, and its ageing potential is measured in decades: a well-stored bottle can last fifty years, or even a century, without losing its vigour.
Its magnificence comes from a bold choice: it is deliberately left in contact with air, which would ruin any other wine. A living veil of yeast develops on the surface of the wine in the barrel, protecting it while transforming it. The result is an unmistakable aroma — fresh walnuts, hazelnuts, curry, dried fruit and a spicy, almost « hydrocarbon-like » note — and an exceptionally long finish. Local tradition pairs it with carefully chosen dishes: aged Comté, chicken with vin jaune and morels, trout, poularde pie, or simply a glass savoured slowly among friends.
Making it is a slow, precise process with no shortcuts, where every stage matters. From grape to bottle, it takes more than six years of patience — one of the longest ageing periods in the wine world.
Savagnin is picked as late in the season as possible, often in late October, to obtain very ripe grapes with concentrated sugars and aromas.
The grapes are gently pressed, then the must ferments in a vat. Fermentation is slow, sometimes lasting several weeks, and produces a dry, lively white wine with high acidity.
The wine is poured into 228-litre oak barrels filled to the brim, with no topping up afterwards. The yeasts known as « voilées », or veil-forming yeasts, develop naturally on the surface and form a protective film.
The barrel is never topped up: some of the wine evaporates — the « part des anges », or angels' share — and the yeast veil protects the rest from complete oxidation. Beneath this thin layer, the wine slowly develops its golden colour and walnut aromas.
Regular tastings check that the yeast veil remains intact and the wine is developing well. Only after approval is the matured wine deemed worthy of the name « vin jaune », meaning yellow wine.
The wine is bottled in the famous 62 cl clavelin, sealed with a wax cap and ready to spend decades in the cellar. It is this newly ready vintage that the Percée celebrates.
In the 1990s, vin jaune was still often confused with straw wine. Winegrowers from the Jura decided to create a public festival that could explain, glass in hand, what makes this wine unique. The first edition took place in 1997, initiated by winegrower Bernard Badoz and Jean-Louis Lemarchal, then director of the newspaper Le Progrès.
Thirty years later, the event has become one of the largest wine festivals in France. It still moves from place to place: each year, a different Jura village hosts the festival and gives it its own character. Arlay takes over in 2027.
Vin jaune is made from savagnin grapes and aged in oak barrels for at least six years and three months, without the barrel ever being topped up. A veil of yeast forms on the surface and gradually shapes its aromas. The Percée celebrates this very moment: when the vintage is finally considered ready.
The highlight of the weekend is still the barrel-tapping ceremony. The barrel is blessed and escorted in a procession through the streets with brass bands and winegrowers, then tapped in public. The first glasses are passed over the crowd, and the name of the village hosting the next edition is revealed.
Since 1997
The Percée moves from place to place: each year, a different village in the Jura wine region hosts the festival and opens its wine cellars. Here is the full list of host villages since the first edition in Poligny in 1997, with the known highlights from each year. Only three years have passed without a Percée: 2017, 2021 and 2025.
First edition, launched by winegrower Bernard Badoz. An unexpected success with 15,000 visitors.
According to the mayor of Arlay, one of the biggest Percée events, with over 45,000 people.
Record attendance: over 60,000 visitors across the weekend. A 1774 arbois fetches €57,000 at auction.
The big freeze edition: temperatures as low as -18 °C, the coldest ever recorded.
20th edition.
First year without a Percée since 1997.
Replaced by open days at around thirty wine estates.
Edition postponed until April.
207 lots offered at the old vintages auction.
26th edition, on 3 and 4 February, with the tapping of the 2017 vintage. Over 30,000 visitors and 51 wine cellars open.
A year off decided by the Ambassadeurs des vins jaunes to rethink the organisation.
The festival returns on 31 January and 1 February with the 2019 vintage and a deliberately reduced capacity.
28th edition, on 6 and 7 February. Sébastien Cartaux-Bougaud appointed as president.
Sources: list of host villages and historical milestones published by the regional press and the organisers. Public attendance figures are not available for some earlier editions.
On Sunday morning
Every Percée ends with an auction of old bottles from the Jura, led by an auctioneer in front of a packed room. The lots come from private cellars and wine estates in the region: vin jaune, château-chalon, and century-old bottles sometimes still sealed with wax. In Voiteur in 2023, 207 lots went under the hammer.
The most famous bottle in the festival's history is an arbois vin jaune from 1774, made by Anatoile Vercel (1725-1786) and kept for more than two centuries in a vaulted cellar in Arbois by his descendants. Arbois resident Roger Gibey, who was able to taste it and analyse its composition, notes that it has “withstood the passage of time”. These bottles are among the oldest bottles of wine still in circulation.
Buyers travel from far afield: Swiss collectors, North American enthusiasts and international firms. Bidders take part both in the room and online.
The all-time top three
103 700 €
Price fetched by a bottle of arbois vin jaune 1774 on 26 May 2018 in Lons-le-Saunier: a record for a Jura wine. Two other bottles of the same vintage sold that day for €76,250 and €73,200.
103 700 €
Arbois vin jaune 1774
Lons-le-Saunier, 26 May 2018
An all-time record for a Jura wine. The mouth-blown bottle, with a capacity of 87 cl, comes from the cellar of Anatoile Vercel, an 18th-century winegrower from Arbois.
76 250 €
Arbois vin jaune 1774
Lons-le-Saunier, 26 May 2018
Second bottle from the same Vercel collection, sold during the same auction session.
73 200 €
Arbois vin jaune 1774
Lons-le-Saunier, 26 May 2018
Third bottle from 1774 sold that day, bought for North American collectors.
57 000 €
Arbois vin jaune 1774
Percée d'Arbois, February 2011
The headline-making sale that brought the Percée auction worldwide fame, and the previous record for a Jura wine.
38 300 €
Arbois vin jaune 1774
Genève, 2012
Sold for 46,000 Swiss francs at an international auction, outside the Percée.
5 500 €
Château-Chalon 1870
Percée de Ruffey-sur-Seille, 2012
Highest auction price at the coldest edition in the festival's history.
3 500 €
Château-Chalon 1886
Percée de Voiteur, 5 February 2023
Sold online during a 207-lot auction conducted by Me Jean-Paul Renoud-Grappin.
2 800 €
Château-Chalon 1886
Percée de Voiteur, 5 February 2023
Second bottle, sold to a Swiss collector in the room who has been collecting vin jaune for forty years.
Amounts reported in the press at the time of the sales, including fees as published. They relate to past editions and do not indicate which lots will be offered in 2027.
Reports and footage from previous editions, to give you a taste of the atmosphere before you come to Arlay.
25th Percée du Vin Jaune in Voiteur
France 3 Bourgogne-Franche-Comté
Preparations for the Percée du vin jaune
France 3 Bourgogne-Franche-Comté
The 20th Percée du Vin Jaune
Médiavino
The Percée auction in 4 key facts
Actu / Voix du Jura
The Percée du Vin Jaune, a responsible wine festival
Vin & Société
Percée du Vin Jaune in Arbois, 2024 edition
Visitor video
The first weekend in February is one of the liveliest of the year in the wine region. Make the most of your trip to discover other events across the department: our pages on food and local produce , culture et markets and flea markets list events throughout the Jura, and the page on things to do this weekend brings together events from Friday to Sunday. You can also browse the full events calendar or the list of towns and villages in the department .
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