Formerly run by the legendary Guy Blanchard, Domaine Sauveterre is now helmed by Jerome Guichard. He farms three small parcels of chardonnay around the village of Montbellet, and one small parcel of gamay on an excellent slope further south in the village of Leynes, that is shared with Phillippe Jambon and Pierre Boyat.

Jerome was a landscape architect prior to becoming a vigneron and his love of plants is totally apparent. Yet it is his understanding of bacteria that is even more impressive. He understands yeast immensely and his current work, exploring the potential for even greater life and diversity beneath the soil, has given him a reputation as one of the leading farmers in the region.  

His winemaking is delicate. The reds are not macerated for very long. Jerome favours fruit and fleshiness over minerality through extended skin contact and the wines are deliciously pulpy as a result. For the whites, Jerome is a master at using the anti-oxidative qualities of lees contact to retain aromas and flavours of fruit. Most of the wines are elevaged in barriques.

While the chardonnay at Jerome’s Bouchat site grows over clay-rich soils and is relatively dense and mineral as a result, the Promess site where the gamay grows has a much higher limestone content, and gives a more tense and direct style of red wine.