Clusel-Roch

Domaine Clusel-Roch is at Verenay, the hamlet at the northern end of Ampuis where Côte-Rôtie begins. Baptiste and Marguerite Clusel planted the family's vines in Les Grandes Places in 1935; the first wines were bottled at the domaine in 1969; Gilbert Clusel came back to the vines in 1980 after his studies and, with Brigitte Roch, gave the estate its present name in 1989. Their son Guillaume joined in 2009 and has run it since.

The holdings run to about five hectares of Côte-Rôtie and half a hectare of Condrieu, on the schist and mica-schist of the appellation's northern sector. Arcana Cabinet lists Les Schistes, the domaine's blended Côte-Rôtie, in magnum, alongside the single-parcel Le Champon, La Viallière and Les Grandes Places, the 1935 planting from which almost every other vine on the estate descends. Beside them come Condrieu Verchery, a Viognier from the terraces downstream, a Côtes du Rhône Les Vergers, and a Vin de France bottled simply as Serine.

The estate has been certified organic since 2002, and the terraces are worked by hand, no tractor being able to hold them. The vines are massale selections of Serine, the old low-yielding Ampuis strain of Syrah, propagated from Les Grandes Places itself; the cellar keeps an old vertical press, ferments on native yeast, and neither chaptalises nor acidifies, with oak kept restrained. Expect dark berry, violet and cracked pepper over a firm, mineral frame. Arcana Cabinet lists seven wines from the domaine: the Côte-Rôties Les Schistes, Le Champon, La Viallière and Les Grandes Places, Condrieu Verchery, Côtes du Rhône Les Vergers and the Vin de France Serine. The range also includes a Coteaux du Lyonnais.