Herve Souhart St Joseph 'Sainte Epine' 2020

Hervé Souhaut created Domaine Romaneaux-Destezet in 1993. Hervé works 5-hectares of old and ancient vines—between 50 to 100 years old. He is very fortunate to work two vineyards in the Rhône Valley just opposite the storied hills of Hermitage in Saint Joseph.The actual domaine is located further into the hills of the Northern Ardeche along the Doux River, in the tiny town of Arlebosc, about a 30-minute drive, winding through the hills west from St Joseph. The winery is underneath the 16th century “Les Romaneaux” fortified farm and sits in the middle of the vines that make up the Souteronne, Syrah, and white cuvées. The methods of Jules Chauvet are followed here. Hervé works entirely on whole grape bunches and semi-carbonic maceration. His philosophy is to extract a delicate balance of tannins from the grapes, to make a wine with subtlety and finesse. This stands in contrast to many of the storied wines of the Northern Rhone that are made with much more extraction of tannin, where they are designed to be practically undrinkable in their youth, as time is needed for them to soften and open up. Hervé prefers to make a wine that is drinkable right away, but we must say his wines have such a fantastic level of purity and acidity, that the older bottles have incredible potential to evolve into what we find to be one of the most spectacular natural wines in existence.The AOC wines are labeled under Souhaut's name, while the Vin de Pays cuvées are named Domaine Romaneaux-Destezet, in homage to the name of his wife Béatrice's parents' estate combined with family name.