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 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 earned 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 unfold slowly, but with depth, clarity, and grace.

Le Bois de Biennier is the stand of woods directly above the family house in Andance, and the syrah planted there in 1978 and 1979 has been in Souillard's hands for three generations. He bottles it as two wines rather than one, having found that a change of exposure moved the wine further than anything he could do in the cellar. This is the eastern half: 1.31 hectares of light, shallow decomposed granite at 300 meters, ringed by forest, cooled by winds that run both directions along the valley, with the Alps on the horizon. Fermentation runs two to three weeks on indigenous yeasts in stainless steel, 40 to 60 percent whole cluster, with a pump-over or two a day, followed by 18 to 20 months in used barrels and bottling without fining or filtration.

Heat and drought shaped 2022 across the Northern Rhône, yet this finished at 12.5 percent alcohol. Morello cherry and blood orange come first, then crushed thyme, black olive, and cracked pepper, with the granite reading as something dusty and iron-edged underneath. The tannins are fine-grained and gently chalky, and the finish carries a salted, almost briny lift. Drink through 2038.