Yves Cuilleron never meant to be a winemaker. He trained as an engineer. But there was too much history behind him; three generations each on both the maternal and paternal line. When his uncle decided to retire from the family domaine with no successor lined up, the family considered selling. It jolted Yves. “I didn’t have a moment’s hesitation. I could no longer imagine being anything but a vigneron.” After a year at the Ecole Viticole in Burgundy, he took over, and his methodical, scientific approach informs his whole approach to winemaking. He has thought and rethought every step in the process, and is part of every process from planting vines to bottling. An intense, tiring approach, but as Yves puts it, `I focus on everything. That’s the price you pay for quality.`

Yet it is an approach that has paid dividends. The estate has grown from 3.5 hectares when Yves took it on in 1986 to 59 hectares now, and its reputation has soared. Yves has acquired prime, old vine parcels in a range of local terroirs including Condrieu and Cote Rotie, and built a new winery at Chavanay. He has expanded beyond the traditional appellation boundaries to make some very brilliant Vin de Pays. His Viognier has a classy, crystalline intensity with a finish worthy of many producers’ Condrieus; the Marsanne and Roussanne are riper and more exotic, lovely examples of their varieties.

The steep slopes overlooking this stretch of the northern Rhone are impossible to mechanise and labour-intensive to work, but it is from here that Yves makes some of his most renowned labels. In local dialect, ‘Chaillets’ means terraces, and the Chaillets label takes fruit from vineyards precipitously perched above Chavanay. Vernon comes from the eponymous granitic hillside, one of Condrieu’s most finest sites. His Cote Rotie Madiniere captures the perfume, intensity, power and finesse of the best examples of its appellation; Bonniviere is a lieu-dit in the very centre of the Cote. (NT 31/10/19)