Jean-Baptiste Souillard Cornas 'St Pierre' 2020
£71.76

Jean-Baptiste Souillard

Jean-Baptiste Souillard Cornas 'St Pierre' 2020

Country: France
Region: Rhône
Grape: Syrah
Colour: Red
Bottle Size: 75cl
Bottle Weight: 1345g
Alcohol: 13%
Vintage: 2020

"So savoury and yet so full of dark fruit. Deep, firmly tannic but such refined texture. A little more approachable – with food – than the 2019s but still a long way to go. Charry, meaty savour, black fruit that is rich without sweetness. Great Cornas. Drink 2022–2028" 17,5 points, Julia Harding MW

A rising star of the Northern Rhône, Jean-Baptiste returned to St Joseph after working in New Zealand, Australia, California, Bordeaux and Burgundy.  He has sought out small high altitude parcels that express balance and elegance. Quantities of each cuvée are often tiny as Jean Baptiste seeks to focus on single parcel expressions.  Vinification is simple, lots of air on the whites no sulphur during fermentation producing very classic flavours.  Very much vin de garde rather than vin de soif, Jean-Baptiste is forging his own path.

Jean Baptiste seeks freshness in his wines, so has sought out vines mainly on the top of slopes as well as being planted on granite.  All his vineyards are listed as ‘lute raisonnée’.

His ‘village’ or ‘cru’ whites are lightly crushed.  He uses small vertical presses to extract some tannin and bitterness for his whites to give them support and ageability—”la voie de amers” (the bitter road).  He likes to ‘explode’ the whites with air, allowing for the use of no sulphur in the beginning by oxidizing the wines early.  Classic élevage, old school principles.

Saint-Pierre is 0.1ha, and one of the highest sites in the region (400masl). This makes it incredibly cool, and in fact the vineyard site wasn't planted until 2000 as it was originally considered to be too cool.

PRODUCER NOTES

A rising star of the Northern Rhône, Jean-Baptiste returned to St Joseph after working in New Zealand, Australia, California, Bordeaux and Burgundy.  He has sought out small high altitude parcels that express balance and elegance. Quantities of each cuvée are often tiny as Jean Baptiste seeks to focus on single parcel expressions.  Vinification is simple, lots of air on the whites no sulphur during fermentation producing very classic flavours.  Very much vin de garde rather than vin de soif, Jean-Baptiste is forging his own path.

FARMING & WINEMAKING NOTES

Jean Baptiste seeks freshness in his wines, so has sought out vines mainly on the top of slopes as well as being planted on granite.  All his vineyards are listed as ‘lute raisonnée’.

His ‘village’ or ‘cru’ whites are lightly crushed.  He uses small vertical presses to extract some tannin and bitterness for his whites to give them support and ageability—”la voie de amers” (the bitter road).  He likes to ‘explode’ the whites with air, allowing for the use of no sulphur in the beginning by oxidizing the wines early.  Classic élevage, old school principles.

Saint-Pierre is 0.1ha, and one of the highest sites in the region (400masl). This makes it incredibly cool, and in fact the vineyard site wasn't planted until 2000 as it was originally considered to be too cool.