Maison Stephan
Maison Stephan farms 4.5 hectares of steep slopes in Côte-Rôtie, in the northern Rhône Valley, on granite and gneiss. In 1991, Jean-Michel Stéphan bought his first two hectares in Tupin, where he found old Sérine vines, an original form of Syrah, which he has preserved ever since through massal selection. Since 2017, he has run the estate together with his son Romain. The vines are worked largely by hand, with yields of 30 hectoliters per hectare. Since 1995, Maison Stephan has farmed in a nature-oriented way, and since 1997 the wines have been made without oenological additives, fermented as whole berries and aged in used oak barrels.
Jean-Michel Stéphan and the Sérine
In 1991, Jean-Michel Stéphan acquired his first two hectares in Côte-Rôtie, a vineyard in Tupin whose oldest plantings date back to 1893. There stood a pre-phylloxera stand of Sérine, an original form of Syrah to which it is related much as it is to Dureza; the variety was considered nearly extinct. Stéphan preserves it through massal selection and propagates it from his own plant material. Today, the 4.5 hectares lie on the steepest slopes above the Rhône Valley, on granite and gneiss soils that favor deep-rooting vines. The terraces face southeast, and cool north winds slow ripening. Alongside Sérine and Syrah, small plots of Viognier, Roussanne and Marsanne complete the vineyard.
The sites between Tupin and Vérin
The Côteaux de Tupin comes from 0.5 hectares of steep slope on leucogneiss, planted partly in 1941 and partly in 1993, and is composed entirely of Sérine; yields range between 15 and 20 hectoliters per hectare, and aging lasts 24 months. The Binardes plot lies on the Côte Blonde below the village of Tupin, on terraced soils of granite, quartz and orthogneiss. Its vines were planted between 1986 and 1994 from massal selection, and Les Binardes blends 90 percent Syrah with 10 percent Viognier.
In the commune of Vérin, the Viognier for the Condrieu "Le Tinal" grows on granite and biotite, facing south and southeast; the wine ferments spontaneously and ages for over a year in used barrels. The Syrah VdF comes from three terroirs in Condrieu, Vérin and Roussillon, from alluvial deposits, granite and glacial moraines. These are joined by L'Ultime and Côteaux de Bassenon, both blends of Syrah, Viognier and Sérine, as well as Le Grand Blanc, made from Roussanne, Viognier and Marsanne.
Vineyard and cellar
Work on the slopes is done largely by hand, horses handle the soil cultivation, and on the steepest plots of this stretch of the northern Rhône, winches are used. The grapes are harvested by hand; the vines for Les Binardes and the Condrieu Le Tinal are organically farmed.
In the cellar, the berries are partly placed whole into the fermentation vessels. In the spirit of Jules Chauvet, a cool 24-hour pre-fermentation is followed by a cool carbonic maceration, lasting over twenty days for the Côteaux de Tupin and about ten for the Syrah VdF. The wines then rest in used oak barrels from the Jupille forest, the Syrah for eight months in vat, Les Binardes for twelve months in barrel. Bottling takes place at the estate without fining or filtration, Les Binardes with no added sulfites, the Côteaux de Tupin with a minimal dose. In these wines, the individual site remains recognizable, carried by taut fruit and pronounced tension.