‘L’Etrangère’ means the foreign woman. Originally from Houston, Texas, Nancy Kerschen moved to Tournon to make wine with her French husband, Julien Cécillon, back in 2010. She quickly settled into life in the Northern Rhône, working part time as a local tour guide when not out working in the vines. Surprisingly, it was Nancy, the foreigner, not Julien, the local boy, who made many of the contacts for the young couple to acquire their first vineyards.

After taking a break from the vines for a few years to take care of their twin baby daughters, Nancy yearned to return to the vines and found an opportunity to farm just under a hectare of Syrah in the town of Mauves. The vines are located on the flat plains, at the edge (but not quite inside) of the Saint-Joseph appellation. Nancy, however, decided to treat them with the same care as all of their other vineyards and took on the work alone. From pruning all the way through vinification and bottling, this is Nancy’s baby. Even the patchwork design on the label is a collage she created especially for this wine.

So now only one question remains: why the Nº 7 on the label? According to Nancy, “It’s for good luck and happiness.” She comes from a family of seven children, 07 is the department code for the Ardèche (where they live), and 77 is the start of every zip code in Houston, where she grew up.