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.
This cuvée comes from a single site in Andance, where syrah vines planted in the 1980s and 1990s face south and sit low on the slope, shielded from the north wind and quick to ripen. The soils here are a light, fragile, and finely textured mix of degraded granite and loess. It’s a warmer microclimate than many of Souillard’s other parcels, but the wine remains startlingly fresh.
Vinification follows Souillard’s restrained but confident hand: 40 to 100% whole-cluster fermentation with native yeasts, a 2 to 3-week maceration with pump-overs in stainless steel, and 13 to 18 months in used barrels. As always, no fining, no filtration, and only minimal sulfur.
The result is a syrah that smolders more than it shines, trading overt fruit for texture, savor, and aromatic lift. There’s tension between earth and flower, spice and stem, granite and fruit. Saline, savory, and coiled, it’s a wine that doesn’t try to impress in the first glass. But give it time, and something compelling begins to unfurl: rose petals, dried herbs, cool smoke, and crushed rock. The kind of wine that disappears slowly but inevitably, one glass at a time.
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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.
