Jean-Baptiste Souillard is releasing only his third vintage, but his skills and vision have already garnered serious critical acclaim. A native of the northern Rhône, Jean-Baptiste’s father directed the local wine co-op and so he early formed an ambition to become a winemaker. With a collection of wine diplomas under his belt, Jean-Baptiste set out to acquire practical skills, apprenticing to luminaries like Ben Leroux and Jean-Luc Colombo. Finally, in 2009, to perfect his technical skills, he began a stint as a consulting oenologist at a lab in Cornas. In 2014, he began making wine under his own name.
The Domaine comprises a mere 2 hectares at present but Jean-Baptiste, focused on producing singular, terroir-driven wines, remarkably makes 15 different cuvées from Syrah, Marsanne, Roussanne, and Viognier. Jean-Baptiste prefers parcels situated high on slopes, ideally near the ridges and rich in granite. The resulting wines boast structure, minerality, and cool reserve.
Souillard’s whites are made from lightly crushed grapes and a slow fermentation in tank over indiegenous yeasts. . Jean-Baptiste uses a manual vertical press but avoids the use of sulfur. The wines thus acquire an oxidative character which he softens with full malo. In general the whites are aged for about a year in used oak barrels. Souillard’s reds are made largely from whole-cluster fruit, which is gently pressed in a manual, vertical press. They are fermented in stainless steel for three weeks with periodic remontage. The reds are aged in used oak barrels and the wine is bottled unfined and unfiltered.
APPELLATIONS: Saint-Péray; Crozes-Hermitage; Saint Joseph; Côte-Rôtie; Cornas
● COUNTRY
● France
● REGION
● Rhône
● APPELLATIONS
● See Bio
● WINEMAKER
● Jean-Baptiste Souillard
● FOUNDED
● 2014
● VINEYARD AREA
● 2 hectares
● FARMING
● Lutte Raisonnée
