Four of us decamped to Noble Rot Soho for, if perhaps not a wild Real Wine after party, certainly a brilliant evening of food and wine. It was actually my first time at the Soho location, despite being almost a regular of sorts at Lambs Conduit Street when we lived in England. There they had, and still have, surely the best value lunch menu in London, and the same is available at Soho.

All four of us are avid Jura fans and I won’t lie, we were there for the Roast Chicken, Morels and Vin Jaune, the Noble Rot rendition of Poulet aux Morilles et Vin Jaune, that has to pass my lips at least twice on any visit to The Jura.

The Soho venue, at 2 Greek Street, occupying the former site of the famous Gay Hussar, is somewhat smaller than the original Noble Rot, and it is worth noting that the largest table seats only six (though the private dining room upstairs can accommodate ten), and booking is essential. However, the cooking here is of a very high order. Head Chef is Alex Jackson, though Stephen Harris’s executive eye ensures that the most fastidious critic is thrilled (as they have been).

We chose to select something “interesting” from the list as our aperitif, so we went for a Greek sparkling wine, Domaine Karanika Extra Cuvée de Réserve 2017. This is a bottle fermented Xinomavro sparkler (so a blanc de noirs) made by Laurens and Annette Hartman-Van Kampen. It was bottled in January 2018 and disgorged December 2022 with zero dosage. The estate is in Amyndeon in Macedonia, Northern Greece. It’s a small biodynamic domaine making boutique wines of high quality. This was zippy, with lovely red summer fruits, apple-fresh acids, crisp but easy to drink. No additives are used and sulphuring is very low. Not having had a lot of ageing post-disgorgement, it is very much in an aperitif style, but definitely delicious and certainly showing some developed complexity, and Xinomavro seems to work exceptionally well in a sparkling wine here.

De L’Avant, Maison Maenad, Côtes du Jura 2021 is something of a find on the list. I had managed to locate some in France, from my friend Russell at Feral Art & Vin in Bordeaux, but the chaps at Noble Rot have applied their fingers to the pulse once more. Irresistible, seeing it on the list here. Tutto Wines have begun to import it.

For this cuvée we have forty-year-old Chardonnay vines planted in “Les Varrons”, a site made famous by the Labet family, of course. The soils here are red clay. The lady behind this wine is Canadian native, Katie Worobeck, who had worked five years with the Ganevats previous to starting her own small label. I say small. There’s a plot of Chardonnay with a little Gamay in Les Varrons, plus now three more hectares in “Au Carre” in the forested hills above Grusse, both of course in the Jura’s Southern Revermont. Her winery is beneath her home in Orbagna.

I strongly advocate trying Katie’s wines. This is up there with the best Jura Chardonnays that money can buy (although there are a handful of better ones which on the whole you need more than just money to get hold of them). I’m increasingly frustrated by the unicorn nature of so many Jura wines now, but it’s possible that Tutto might have some of Katie’s wines left. Expect to pay 50€/bottle at Feral, who have several cuvées.

That said, I have to tell you, this restaurant has a truly exceptional dedicated Jura section on the wine list.

The food should not be forgotten here. We chose a number of small starter plates, but the Choux Bun, with chicken liver parfait, Tokaji jelly and walnut is definitely not to be missed. But what of the main event. I count myself a connoisseur of this dish, so many different versions have I partaken of over the decades. I’ve even made it myself, although I‘m always let down by the quality of the chicken in the UK. It should be noted that, like any chef in France, the chicken is cooked in a Savagnin table wine, Vin Jaune being way too expensive. However, finishing the dish with a decent glug of Vin Jaune is essential in my view. Maison Rolet in Arbois sells Vin Jaune in a half-Clavelin, which I always used to find an ideal size and quality for the purpose, enough for the dish and for a “cooks share” whilst it is in the oven.

This version is way above the quality of any attempt I’ve tried before in the UK, and certainly far better than anything I’ve made. In France, it isn’t always the Michelin-starred chefs who make the best versions. This is partly because the dish needs a hearty quality, and a generosity. I always remember the variation we used to eat at the now closed La Balance in Arbois, where a very generous quantity of rice helped soak up the rich sauce and alcohol, and where chunks of chicken came on the bone. There was a nod to that style here.

Time to confess that my favourite three foods, context being all, are Nepalese Momos, a plate-hanger of a schnitzel in Vienna or Burgenland, and Poulet aux Morilles et Vin Jaune in Arbois. So, I was a happy man and I can’t wait for another opportunity to eat this again. If I can make one comment of a less than glowing nature, it didn’t quite have the concentrated Savagnin essence as the best French versions, which could be to do with a decent glug of VJ to finish? But I am not complaining.

As for Vin Jaune, a friend had arranged a byob of something rather special. Marius Perron Château-Chalon 1983. It’s a small, 3-hectare, domaine which was taken over a little over a decade ago by Marius’s son-in-law, and the wines have become somewhat invisible. The only source for Marius’s now legendary wines is at occasional auction. So, this was a treat. It did not disappoint. Words are superfluous. If you like “Vin Jaune” this would thrill your tastebuds.

A good stroll back the Fleet Street was well in order after a very rich dinner (finished with cheese, of course), although it was more a stroll than the staggers home I may have managed from time to time in Arbois. I can’t recommend both Noble Rot Soho, and this particular main course highly enough, although many readers will be well ahead of my game on this. In many ways the ultimate wine geek’s restaurant.