Jean Baptiste Souillard Saint Joseph Bergeron 2016

Coming from a traditional wine making family, It was never a question for Jean-Baptiste: even very young he knew he would one day make wine. After his studies with Jean-Luc Colombo and having worked in Burgundy where even modest individual terroirs are revered, he found it sad that so many Northern Rhône wines were blends, that is why he only release single grape varietals to explore the potential of his land.

Jean-Baptiste’s wines are like nothing else we’ve had from the Northern Rhône (bing 2014 as his very first vintage)—at least recently. For the whites, Jean-Baptiste’s tendency to pick just before they over-ripen result in incredibly fresh wines. For the syrah, there is none of the primary violets and black fruit, nor any of the bacon. They are so much more than that: between a very whole-cluster-Burgundy faded rose petals and magnificent, hyper-tense, savory note.