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 Tout sits at the northern edge of Crozes-Hermitage, three and a half kilometers from the village on a gentle south-facing slope at 175 meters, surrounded by apricot trees. The marsanne was planted in the late 1930s across 0.11 hectares. Most of Crozes lies south of the hill of Hermitage on rolled river stones, but the geology here, mapped for the estate by Brenna Quigley, runs to limestone bedrock beneath a layer of calcareous loess, with deep silty soils carrying up to fifteen percent limestone gravel. Souillard's whites are lightly crushed and pressed in small vertical presses, given air and no sulfur early so that anything unstable falls out at the start, then settled for a day and aged 13 to 18 months in barrel. Le Tout is the only wine in the cellar that sees a new barrel, and only one.
The limestone gives this a different shape than his granite whites, rounder through the middle and slower to open. Quince and white peach sit under chamomile and lemon oil, with salted almond and a bitter, pithy grip on the close that keeps the texture from settling into richness. It is a wine that rewards a large glass and a little patience. Drink through 2034.
