Saint Peray La Belle de Mai

Jean-Luc Colombo has been a renowned enologist in the Rhône Valley since the early 1980s. His consultations at prestigious estates across the Rhône quickly earned him a reputation for helping produce incredible expressions of this rugged terroir. But his greatest contribution to the wine world is the exceptional wines he crafts alongside his wife, Anne, and daughter, Laure. The Cornas-based Colombo winery has earned impressive international recognition bringing modern viticultural practices to the region — and for creating beautifully concentrated, balanced, and fresh styles of syrah. Living among their vineyards and wetlands, the family have been committed to sustainable farming, achieving organic certification for their estate vineyards from Ecocert in 2016.

Located in the Ardèche, just South of Cornas to the West of Valence, Saint Peray is the southernmost and smallest appellation of the Northern Rhone and enjoys the climatic influences of two regions (the Mediterranean and the Continental climates). Jean-Luc and Anne first acquired their vineyard of 80 year old vines planted with Roussanne and Marsanne in the early 1990s. Jean-Luc named the cuvée produced from this vineyard La Belle de Mail (the Beauty of May) which refers to the district in Marseille where his mother (Paulette) ran a local restaurant. This wine is made with organic grapes and certified by Ecocert.

Grapes are harvested manually and then slowly fermented in oak barrels from 10 to 12 months (10% new, 90% in one- to five-year old barrels). The wine is left on the lees with a weekly stirring to extract maximum aroma for six months.

A delicate wine that evokes the beginning of spring. Aromas of hawthorn and linden-tree as well as notes of quince and citrus. Full bodied with mineral tones and a long finish.