Jeannine Boutin Hermitage ‘Arena Mica’ 2023

J. Boutin / Stéphane Vedeau

The soft-spoken but charismatic vigneron and winemaker Stéphane Vedeau is one of Chabrol’s oldest friends. Wines from his three domains – J.Boutin in the Northern Rhone, Clos Bellane and La Ferme du Mont in the South – are some of the most consistent factors on our shelves, and with his uncontrived yet decisive vinifications Vedeau forms a logical bridge between our classical and low-intervention selections.

Under the label of J. Boutin, named after his mother Jeannine, Vedeau produces very limited bottlings from small family-owned parcels in Saint-Joseph, Crozes-Hermitage, Hermitage and Cote-Rotie. These old-vine plots are farmed organically, and their hand-harvested grapes are vinified spontaneously and delicately but with deterined oversight in concrete tanks. Aging is done in tank and large barrels, after which the resulting wines are bottled unfined and unfiltered. These unadulterated but stable wines are amazingly pure and digestible expressions of Old World Syrah, reflective of both their rugged origin and the mathematical mind of their maker.