SKU: 13505
Francois Villard l'Appel des Sereines Syrah 2021
750ml
$19.99
Francois Villard started out his career in food and wine as a chef. He grew up between Vienne and Grenoble, in the French countryside. He made his first Condrieu in 1991, a whopping 400 bottles. Today, he’s working with 64 hectares total, of which he owns 40 hectares. He makes wine from Côte-Rôtie down to Saint Peray, and a little of everything between: four Condrieu, five Saint-Joseph (red and white), three Crozes-Hermitage, a Cornas, and four Vin de France (Marsanne-Roussanne, Viognier, and two Syrah).
Villard farms sustainably and hopes to be certified organic by 2023. He works his soils and uses organic fertilizers and organic treatments for disease as needed. He’s working with spontaneous fermentations and he has begun experiments with making wine without sulfur during vinification and it has gone well, so he’ll expand on that in the coming years. He has no intention of eliminating sulfur altogether and plans to continue to use a minimum amount of sulfur at bottling. He filters the wines if he needs too, but tries to avoid it.
In terms of style, Villard tends to harvest later than his neighbors, optimizing ripeness. He uses whole clusters during vinification as the stems give freshness to the wine. Villard never chaptalizes and will make several passes in the vineyards to wait for the fruit to ripen. He’s using barrels and foudres for aging, some new depending on the cuvée. The reds strike a nice harmony between red fruit notes and spicy earth, classic Northern Rhône. This Syrah is made with a twelve day maceration with twenty-five percent whole clusters in open-top wood tronconique vats followed by eleven months of aging, half in the vat and half in neutral barrels.
Red
White
Rosé
Sparkling
Sparkling Rosé
Kosher
Organic
No Sulfites Added
Biodynamic
Sustainable
Screw
Cap
Vegan
-
wa91Wine Advocate
-
ws91Wine Spectator
-
st91International Wine Cellar
-
we91Wine Enthusiast
-
js91James Suckling
-
bs91Bottle Shop
-
w&s91Wine & Spirits
-
bh91Burghound
-
wj91Wine Journal
-
wsk91Whiskey Advocate
-
agv91Vinous
-
d91Decanter
-
tp91The Tasting Panel
-
jd91Jeb Dunnuck
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-