More about Francois Villard

Long before "somm project" became a wine-world cliché, François Villard was the real thing: a trained chef who cooked and studied wine service before planting his first vines in Condrieu in 1989. He has since become one of the Northern Rhône's reference points for purity and place.

Villard took a qualification in viticulture and oenology in the Mâconnais, apprenticed with Yves Cuilleron, and bottled his first Condrieu, all 400 bottles of it, in 1991. He built his own cellar in Saint-Michel-sur-Rhône in 1996, and today the domaine farms more than 40 hectares of its own on steep, hand-worked terraces of granite and schist. The vineyards are certified organic.

The range runs from Condrieu and Côte-Rôtie through Saint-Joseph, Crozes-Hermitage, Cornas and Saint-Péray. The early wines were known for richness and plenty of new oak; the modern Villard style is noticeably more restrained, with native-yeast fermentations, whole clusters for the reds and long aging in a mix of barrels, foudres and vats.

Two things to look for: his Condrieus, which are the heart of the domaine (Terrasses du Palat and Le Grand Vallon are classics), and the young-vine Vin de France bottlings like L'Appel des Sereines, which give you peppery, violet-scented Northern Rhône Syrah from real granite hillsides without the appellation price tag.