François Villard

Condrieu, Northern Rhône

Represented by François Villard

Grand Tasting Wines:
Mairlant Blanc 2020

Reflet 2020

Reflet 2012

Deponcin 2020

François Villard is one of the stars of the northern Rhône. He came to winegrowing after a career in restaurants, where he caught the wine bug and moved from chef to sommelier. He went full time as a winegrower in 1991, and was entirely self taught, although he has a close friendship with Yves Cuilleron.

The vines are entirely worked by hand and the domaine started its conversion towards organic farming in 2019. Each plot is harvested separately to reach perfect individual maturity and later individually vinified. 

Today, between vineyards he owns and those he purchases from, Francois works with 30 hectares across five crus. Part of the three winemakers involved with the Vins de Vienne project, he believed in planting vines on the “other” side of the Rhône, in Seyssuel. This area can easily be seen as a Côte-Rôtie-like terroir and had been planted in ancient times.

These wines are quite lovely, and he’s clearly moved away a bit from the modernist, new-oak-heavy style that he used to flirt with in the past. Instead, he's moved to less extractive winemaking. And he's using more whole cluster.