JEAN BAPTISTE SOUILLARD COTE-ROTIE COTEAUX DE BASSENON 2022

Jean-Baptiste Souillard founded his micro-négociant operation in 2014 in Andance after training at Château Latour and Comte Armand, working from his family's 1900 farmhouse to produce single-parcel Northern Rhône wines using sustainable viticulture. Côteaux de Bassenon sits at the southern edge of Côte-Rôtie's Côte Blonde on east-facing terraced slopes at 280 meters, where 1980s and 2000 vines grow in 40-50cm degraded granite and sandy gneiss soils over composite gneiss bedrock. Aged 16-20 months in used barrels with 40-100% whole clusters, this Syrah offers violet, dried rose petals, white pepper, and licorice with soft chalky texture, persistent elegance, and graceful structure rather than power.