Eric Texier made the unprecedented leap from nuclear engineer to winemaker in the early nineties. He was fed up with the “Soviet” side of working for big companies and craved the freedom that working for himself could bring. Although his passion for wine was began from the wines of Burgundy and, like many other vignerons, his first choice would have been to acquire some Burgundian vines, he lacked the small fortune required.

He was inspired by an older generation of Rhône producers like Marius Gentaz, Noel Verset, Raymond Trollat and Pouchoulin, and felt that a successor was needed. Drawing on their methods of only using natural yeasts and leaving the bunches intact, he developed some of his own ideas and techniques as well. The grapes are grown organically – ECOCERT certified since 2008 though the labels do not mention this – but not biodynamically as Eric finds the ideology for DEMETER certification far too sectarian.

There are two aspects of biodynamism he does subscribe to – the use of preparations to regenerate the soil and rotating crops between the rows of vines to increase the matière of the soil. Green harvesting is never carried out as Eric feels that though...

Eric Texier made the unprecedented leap from nuclear engineer to winemaker in the early nineties. He was fed up with the “Soviet” side of working for big companies and craved the freedom that working for himself could bring. Although his passion for wine was began from the wines of Burgundy...