Jean-Baptiste Souillard is a micro-négociant based in the hills above Andance, crafting single-parcel wines from high-altitude, granite-rich sites across the Northern Rhône. Trained as an enologist, with time at Château Latour, Comte Armand, and a Cornas lab, he marries precision with a quiet, old-world reverence for place. Inspired by the Cistercian method, his philosophy is both technical and spiritual: one parcel, one wine, each cuvée a faithful expression of its origin. In recent years, his wines have quietly earned him a cult following among those seeking Rhône wines of depth and restraint. His reds are whole-cluster, savory, and structured for the long haul; his whites are shaped by early oxidation, minerality, and a fine thread of savory tension. These are wines that speak slowly, but with depth, clarity, and grace.

Cornas has long been the Rhône’s stronghold for syrah at its most wild and untamed producing muscular wines with years of hard edges to soften. Souillard doesn’t reject that legacy, but he reframes it. His Saint-Pierre bottling, grown on a high-elevation, south-facing slope with poor, rocky soils over granite, is his deepest and most structured cuvée, yet it carries itself with lift and precision. Planted in the early 1970s and 2000s, the vines sit in gravelly-sandy soils that drain quickly and force the roots deep. It’s a cool site, harvested later than much of Cornas, and that tension shows in the glass.

Vinification is classic Souillard: whole-cluster fermentation with native yeasts, gentle pump-overs, and a long élevage, with no fining or filtration and only minimal sulfur. The result is unmistakably Cornas but seen through a lens of restraint. Red and black fruit, iron, violets, and wild herbs lead into a palate that’s savory, structured, and mineral to the core. The tannins are firm but detailed, and the finish stretches out in layers of gravel and smoke.

A true vin de garde, this is a wine built to age, but one that already speaks clearly of its place. It smolders rather than roars, offering power without weight, and poise without polish. In a village known for its brawn, Saint-Pierre is a study in precision and control.

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These wines are pre-arrival with an estimated ship date of early fall. Your wines will ship as weather permits and the daily range is consistently between 45 and 74 degrees. Please note pre-arrival sales are non-refundable as suppliers require us to make binding commitments and deposits to secure the wine.