Domaine François Villard

The wonderfully titled Poivre et Sol is the entry point into Villard’s Saint-Joseph reds. It is lifted and complex and embroidered with violet and freshly cracked pepper and lighter-bodied than his other three S-J Syrah’s. Crafted from various of his estate vineyards in the northern communes of Saint-Joseph, these vineyards face east and south-east with vines averaging 20-years-old, planted at anywhere from 5,000 to 8,000 vines per hectare in both the Gobelet and Cordon de Royat training methods. The soils are of the classic decomposed granite and quartz, and the yield is only 42hl/ha. François chooses 70% whole cluster for this wine with 11 days of maceration in a mix of open top oak vats and stainless steel before racking the wine to French oak barrels and foudres for 12 months and then blending and resting the wine another 4-6 months in stainless steel before bottling. 115,000 bottles made. 12.5%. Cellaring potential: 15 years. This is his opening salvo for Saint-Joseph AOC, and it does not disappoint! Superbly balanced with flexible tannins and sweet peppercorn for days.