Domaine François Villard

The top Marsanne/Roussanne from François, the Mairlant blanc hails from the Saint-Pierre-de-Boeuf & Limony vineyards, situated on Saint-Joseph’s quintessential soils of decomposed granite, poor in nutrients and with excellent drainage, showing the most gloriously tensile side of the Northern Rhône’s dynamic duo: Marsanne & Roussanne. This cuvée shows the duo in even footing, François’s largest proportion of Roussanne in the portfolio. At 7,000 vines per hectare in Single Guyot training, 2022 saw a yield of 45hl/ha, making for 12,000 bottles. The vines face south-east and are of course farmed by hand, as all his Saint-Joseph vineyards are rather steep and mostly terraced. He does a low temperature indigenous ferment in oak for his Mairlant, as he does for his other Marsanne’s, but here he does all barrels (instead of foudres) and more bâtonnage (weekly for about six weeks) and includes 10% new oak, resting the wine therein for 12 months, followed by a further eight months in stainless steel to settle and get to know itself before bottling. 13.5%. Cellaring potential: 15 years. An excellent vintage.