THE WINE
Biodynamic Syrah from parcels located outside the appellation of St Joseph. This wine offers incredible value from one of our favourite winemakers in the region.  
 
St Joseph Syrah is a much more elegant and refined style to those that have only experienced this grape as a New World Shiraz.  Rich bramble and dark liquorice with that special tautness from the famous granite of the region. 
 
100% Syrah on granite, destemmed, fermented in concrete vats with a 10-day maceration, aged 6 months in old barrels. 
 
THE PEOPLE
Le Ferme des Sept Lunes is a 10-hectare property set high on the slopes of St Joseph, reached only by a winding 350-metre climb up from the valley floor -  a road with hairpin bends not for the nervous driver.
 
Jean represents the third generation to work this same family farm, and he converted it to organic and biodynamic farming in 1997, adding sulphur to his wines only when there's truly no alternative. The vineyards sit in the upper reaches of St Joseph, facing south-east, where the altitude lends the wines a certain freshness even as the local climate has grown increasingly Mediterranean, tempered by winds from the north.
 
In 2017, Jean was joined by his close friend Jacques Maurice, who was likewise keen to step away from the local cooperative and take control of his own fruit. Having a partner to share the work in both vineyard and cellar has brought fresh energy to Jean, and the wines have only sharpened in focus since. With Jacques now part of the project, the estate's combined holdings have grown to 13.5 hectares.
 
THE PLACE
St Joseph is a Northern Rhône appellation running along the west bank of the Rhône river, stretching some 60-plus kilometres from near Condrieu in the north down toward Cornas and Valence in the south. Created in 1956, it began with just six communes: Glun, Lemps, Mauves, St Jean-de-Muzols, Tournon and Vion, but now has since expanded considerably.
 
St Joseph is primarily a red wine region built on Syrah, with AOC rules permitting up to 10% Marsanne or Roussanne in the blend, while the whites are made exclusively from those two varieties. The granite-rich soils bring elegance, austerity, tension and brightness to the wines, with looser granite in the north and coarser, semi-degraded granite further south, and a semi-continental climate with Mediterranean influences, swept by a cold, dry north wind that helps ripen the grapes. Because the appellation is long and geologically varied, style and quality can differ noticeably from one end to the other, but St Joseph reds are generally lighter and more approachable in youth than their grander Northern Rhône neighbours, drinking well early while remaining comparatively affordable, though the best examples from top sites can age gracefully for decades.