“Blue notes — the bent pitches in jazz that exist between the standard tones, conveying feeling through imprecision.”
Cédric Mottet's father was a police officer in Arbois. His mother worked at the town library. Nothing about his childhood pointed toward vineyards or cellars. What it pointed toward was music — specifically jazz, which pulled him out of the Jura as a teenager and kept him moving for years.
He pursued a professional career in jazz. He paid the bills with highway maintenance. Neither one resolved into a life.
Mottet returned to Arbois and trained under Jean-Michel Petit of Domaine de la Renardière before founding his own domaine in 2017. He named it Notes Bleues — blue notes, the bent pitches in jazz that exist between the standard tones, neither major nor minor, conveying feeling through imprecision.
His first purchase was a small plot of vines from elite Jura vigneron Stéphane Tissot, followed by roughly three hectares of old-vine parcels around Arbois and Mesnay, and another 1.2 hectares added in Buvilly in 2021. The domaine now totals 6.5 hectares and has no plans to grow beyond that. The vines range from thirty to eighty years old, rooted in iridescent marls, grey marls, and limestone-rich gravels — soils that shift color depending on the light and the moisture.
His cellar approach is patient and uniform in duration. Whites — Chardonnay and Savagnin — are whole-cluster pressed, fermented natively in stainless steel, then transferred to 400-liter used Burgundy barrels and aged twelve months without stirring, developing the nutty edge that defines the region. Reds — Pinot Noir and the three-grape Jura blend Partiels (Pinot Noir, Trousseau, Poulsard) — are destemmed, fermented natively, and aged twelve months in stainless steel, preserving the snap and immediacy of Jura fruit. Everything is unfined, unfiltered, with low to no added sulfur.
Cédric draws on Tissot's parcellaire approach to single-parcel expression and on Petit's quality-first winemaking. From jazz he takes the willingness to improvise — to try hybrid grape varieties for climate adaptation, to release a cuvée that doesn't follow the pattern.
The marls catch the light differently every hour. The blue notes bend, and hold.
WINES FROM DOMAINE DES NOTES BLEUES
50-year-old vines on iridescent marl. Whole-cluster pressed to steel, 12 months in neutral oak. Unfined, unfiltered. Jazz-inspired winemaking from the Jura.
Same La Pierre vineyard as the white, different grape. Earthier and more untamed than its Burgundy cousins, with the mineral stamp of ancient marl.
Three classic Jura reds blended and aged in stainless steel for purity and transparency. A partial view that somehow feels complete.