Type

Red Wine

Appellation

Vin de France

Variety

100% Grenache

With the arrival of the next generation, Jean Michel decided to plant an additional 5 hectares of vines outside of the Côte-Rotie appellation together with his son Romain. They chose to plant a mix of the traditional grapes: Syrah, Roussanne, Marsanne, and Viognier. There are five different vineyards in five different nearby villages - between Chasse-sur-Rhône and Roussillon. The Vin de France wines are all vinified sans soufre in tank with the same natural winemaking philosophy as the Côte-Rôtie, yet released in the spring after six months of aging.

Viticulture

Vineyard name

Vines in Ampuis and Chasse-sur-Rhône

Soil type

Fresh harvest from a 1ha parcel of Grenache located in Alba-la-Romaine in the foothills of Mont Juliau. Sloping, south-east-facing plot. The soil consists of deep clay-limestone gravel.

Vine ageFirst vines planted in 1989

Vineyard size1 ha

Vinification

Cold storage. Whole bunch vatting. Cold carbonic maceration. Indigenous yeasts. No pumping over. Natural clarification (no filtration or fining). No inputs. Very low doses or no sulfur (depending on the vintage).

Elevage8 months in concrete tanks

Harvest typeHand Harvested

Fining/FilteringUnfined / Unfiltered with no SO2 added

Additional info

Total production average10,000 bottles

More about
the producer

Maison Stephan

Founded in 1991

10 hectares

Having vinified over 30 vintages of Côte-Rôtie, Jean-Michel Stephan is one of the true masters of natural winemaking in the Northern Rhône. His wines have a vivacious purity that make them instantly identifiable, marked by a balance of energy and transcendence that comes from a lifetime pursuit of his vision to craft flawless wines with absolutely no additives.

Jean-Michel comes from a long lineage of regional farmers. He remembers his grandfather farmed just about anything and everything, and was successful enough to sell nine full train wagon loads of apricots per year. At the end of his vegetable rows, he planted grapes on trellises to divide his fields from the neighbors, then sold this wine off in barrel to local bistros. At the time, the steep hillside vineyards of...