Pierre Jean Villa, Preface St Joseph 2022

This is the first red cuvee of the domain, a wine with a terrific core of Syrah fruit, and it sets the tone (hence its name). At roughly 12,000 bottles, it is the largest production. This is made in a mixture of 225-liter and 600-liter barrels, all older, and the elevage goes for 12-13 months (which will probably increase in the years ahead). The vineyard parcels total two hectares, or five acres, and normally as much as 30% of the grapes--especially those from the old vines of serine--are fermented with stems.

St Joseph is a huge appellation of varying styles and Pierre Jean Villas Preface is as far away from the four-square examples as you can imagine. A solid, well-built man who expresses his elegance in wine he came from the Rhone Valley but learned to make wine in Burgundy, which may also explain his bent for finesse. He first learned the ropes working at Mommessins Clos de Tart. After Boisset bought the Mommessin firm, Pierre Jean worked in Beaujolais and then for three years at Domaine de la Vougeraie with Pascal Marchand. In 2003 he returned to the Rhone and became the manager for Vins de Viennes. This is the company that Yves Cuilleron, Pierre Gaillard, and Francois Villard created to resurrect the ancient vineyard area of Seyssuel, just north of Vienne on the left bank, as well as to do business as a negociant. For seven years Pierre Jean handled the administration and winemaking at the firm, eventually becoming the fourth partner. The other partners had their own domains to run; Vins de Viennes was Pierre Jeans bailiwick, and he made it what it is today. In 2009, after a lot of thought, he handed in his keys and started his own Domaine Pierre Jean Villa from scratch. He began with parcels in St Joseph, Condrieu, and Cote-Rotie, plus he had a parcel in Seyssuel for his Esprit d Antan. He made vintage 2009 at his buddy Jean-Michel Gerins domain in Ampuis and moved into a refurbished fruit processing building in Chavanay the following year. The cellar work remains hands off: spontaneous ferments many with a percentage of stems, some without any, a decision taken at each harvest normally no fining or filtration, and racking and bottling is done according to the lunar calendar. The domain started in 2009 with a cellar full of new barrels, but by vintage 2015 Pierre Jean managed to transition to having most of his elevages take place in older barrels. Going forward, this will be the norm, with now and again a small percentage of new replacement barrels entering the cellar.