Syrah, Aurélien Chatagnier

Aurélien Chatagnier created his own domaine in 2002 while he was just in his early 20s. He doesn’t come from a winemaking family, but as a teenager he worked in the vines for Domaine Jamet, where he became inspired to learn more about winemaking. He worked for several years with François Villard, who eventually pushed him to head out on his own. Starting with just over 1 hectare of rented vines, Aurélien has steadily built up a domaine of almost 10 hectares by purchasing, bartering, and replanting vineyards around the town of St-Pierre-de-Boeuf at the Northern extreme of the Saint Joseph appellation. The vineyards are predominantly granite and extremely steep. The house style runs towards a lean, pure style of winemaking, and shows the reason why some of the best producers in the area decided to pass the torch over to Aurélien as one of the best young winemakers in the region. Aurélien farms organically and employs a light touch in the cellar where he favors native yeasts, mostly used oak, limited extraction, and bottles without fining or filtration.