How three Rhone Valley winemakers revived lost wines of Vienne
Wines from northern Rhone were drunk in ancient Rome. The phylloxera bug wiped out the vines but three friends were determined to revive production, bought an abandoned vineyard - and struck gold, writes Sarah Wong
Les Vins de Vienne portfolio is the realisation of a dream about recreating an ancient wine.
The vineyards of Seyssuel, near the town of Vienne, in the northern Rhone Valley, in France, date back to the Roman Empire. British writer Jonathan Livingstone-Learmonth says that of the wines from Vienne, "the Vinum Picatum has become famous as the first Gallic wine to reach Rome". Well regarded by Roman high society, the wine was "apparently quite a snob drink in their day".
By the 1990s, ravaged by the pest phylloxera, those vineyards had long been abandoned. But three wine-producer friends - Yves Cuilleron, Pierre Gaillard, Francois Villard - believed vineyards located on the left bank of the river Rhone, just 25km from Lyons, still had potential and, in 1996, they acquired the land. When soil studies revealed it contained the same schist soils as those where Cote-Rotie wine is produced, they knew the had stumbled on something great. The rest is history.
The syrah-grape wines from Seyssuel have been receiving glowing accolades in the international wine press.
Cuilleron says that having three winemakers involved allows for more precise decisions, but they don't always agree, so logic is key.
Climate change has proved beneficial to the quality of the wines - with the hotter weather, grapes are reaching optimum ripeness levels. Sugar levels are higher and it is no longer necessary to chaptalise (add sugar to increase alcohol levels).