Jérôme Jouret

Quick facts
  • Location: Ibie River Valley, Southern Ardèche
  • Owner & winemaker: Jérôme Jouret
  • The vines: Old vines 35 to 60 years; newly-planted vines 11 to 16 years
  • Soil: Calcaire (limestone-chalk) and Argile (clay)
  • Vineyards: Mostly flat terrain; varied sun exposure, direct and indirect. Says Jouret, “We are lucky to be in a place where we can harvest when grapes are ready, because we stay cooler here in the evenings. Others in the area need to harvest earlier because the temperature gets so hot.” This helps create wine with pronounced aromatics and fresh flavors.
  • Annual production: 45,000 bottles
  • Vineyard area: 12 hectares
  • Main varieties: Red varieties are old-vine Grenache, Carignan and Syrah; along with Alicante and Merlot. White varieties are Mondeuse Blanche, Roussanne, Viognier, Altesse, Vermentino, Ugni Blanc and Clairette.
  • Vineyard management: Biodynamically farmed; zero chemicals used in the vineyard.
  • Winemaking: Zero-zero practice. 
Fun facts
  • In its current form, the winery has been operated since 2006 by Jérôme and Stéphanie.
  • Jérôme comes from a family of grape growers who used to sell their fruit to the local winemaking cooperative in Ardèche.
  • Jérôme and Stéphanie made the switch to zero-sulfur winemaking when they tested it out and realized they could clearly taste the difference, even when using a small amount.
  • When Jérôme was young, his father was already leaning toward natural winemaking when he stopped using machinery in the fields, instead plowing his soil by horse.
 
On breaking free from the standard

“When I decided to make natural wine — it’s actually a revival way of making wine. I had to kind of learn everything from zero.”

“It’s like a big family here,” Jérôme says of the Ardèche, the picturesque wedge of the northern Rhône river region where he’s based with his wife, Stéphanie, and their 12 hectares of vines. In recent decades especially, independent and family winemakers have found this a welcoming place where they can own land and work freely, untethered to an appellation.

For Jérôme, Southern Ardèche has always been home. His parents — and their parents — grew grapes for the local wine cooperative, a path that Jérôme initially followed after completing wine school in Montpellier. It wasn’t until his thirties that he decided to take things in a different direction, letting a new project stem from the generations-old vines that he’d inherited.

When asked why he began making wine on his own, Jérôme answers simply: “Because I love wine, and I love making wine.” He also cites a moment toward the end of his studies, when for his final project he wanted to report on an organic vigneron he’d visited in Bordeaux. He’d been struck on first taste: “The aromatics and the fruit was something I’d never experienced before — the depth, the freshness. But this was the 1990s. My teacher said, ‘No way! You’ll be kicked out.’”

In the end, Jérôme’s nonconformist inclinations won over. “I wanted more control, wanted to make wine the way I wanted it to be,” he says — using farming, harvesting, and cellar techniques dictated by natural rhythms rather than by an outside organization. “I wanted to harvest when the grapes were ready, not when the [cooperative] facility was open.” What came next was a project born from the combination of technical expertise from years of studies, and a heartfelt affinity toward wines with soul.

On the winery’s early days

Jérôme had known Stéphanie, a canoe and kayak instructor from the town where he lived and grew up, for years before they got married. Together they built a winery and released their first vintage in 2005; the year 2025 marked their twentieth vintage.

Jérôme recalls the first time they produced 50,000 bottles of wine in a single bottling. “We thought, how will we sell these?” The answer lay in the Ardèche community: neighbors who, like Jérôme, had stepped bravely into the unknown and begun to devote themselves to natural winemaking. That year, Gerald Oustric along with Gilles Azzoni (Le Raisin et L’Ange) brought Jérôme along for the annual pilgrimage of natural winemakers and professionals to the Loire Valley for La Dive Bouteille.

“People were there [to see] the well-known makers, and here was this brand new maker,” recalls Jérôme, chuckling. “Our first customer was from Japan. He tasted, and it was love on first taste, and we are still working with him after twenty years.”

From there, word of mouth brought a steady flow of buyers from around the world.

“Natural wine was not the [original] purpose of our project. In the beginning only two of our wines were natural wines: Pas a Pas and En Avant Doute,” says Jérôme. “Pas a Pas means step by step; it meant that we were starting slowly. And En Avant Doute is a play on words, on En Avant Toute.” The name means something like “full speed ahead, despite all doubts.”

It’s fitting: En Avant Doute, made from 100% Grenache, was the cuvée where Jérôme and Stéphanie began to experiment. They divided the barrels into two groups: half got the usual, minor dose of sulfites (around 25 grams), and half got zero.

“It was amazing how different the wine was,” says Jérôme. “We sent them to Japan for example, and when our Japanese clients tasted, they all appreciated more the one without sulfites. So we realized that when you add even a small amount of sulfites, while it might prevent some troubles, it doesn’t let you get the best out of the wine. From then on, we’ve used no sulfites in anything.”

On Jérôme’s philosophy today

Jouret’s wines still come from the old vines inherited from his father and grandfather, sitting on the quintessential clay and chalk-limestone soil of Southern Ardèche. Among them are 60-year-old Carignan plants; 45-year old Syrah; and 40-year old Grenache, Alicante and Merlot. Stéphanie and Jérôme have also done plantings of their own: Syrah in 2009 and a white blend of Mondeuse Blanche, Roussanne, Viognier, Altesse and Vermentino in 2014. In 2025 they’ve added to the mix with white grapes indigenous to the Ardèche as well as hybrid varieties like Aranel.

Farming is done according to the biodynamic calendar and principles, an endeavor that started with Jérôme’s gradual reconversion of his family’s vines since 1997. “The ‘progress’ and chemicals arrived in the 1960s, everywhere,” he explains; “farmers were asked to feed the country, so they had to produce more. So they used chemicals and products for higher production.” Jérôme recalls that when he was young, his father gave up his tractor for a horse to work the fields, already feeling a need to counter the new mainstream.

From vineyard to cellar, the Jouret winery is designed in the spirit of experimental observation. Stéphanie talks about the new plantings: “It’s one big square place, with rows for each variety. The new plantations are a test — we did new training [techniques], used different stakes.”

“In this natural winemaking style, we experiment in the cellar every year!” adds Jérôme. “Since 2018 every vintage is new. Due to the weather or dryness or temperature, we can’t follow a recipe. So it’s permanent, ongoing experimentation.”

Some examples? Since 2023, Jérôme’s white wines have aged in ceramic vessels in place of old wooden barrels — a decision that was at first based on availability, but ultimately imparted a style of reduction and minerality that they love. And for the red wines, playing with harvest times helps to “chase fruit, drinkability, and elegance without too many tannins.”

Putting nature back in charge can also come with a sinister side, which shows itself more in some years than others. In 2024 Jérôme and Stéphanie lost nearly half of their harvest to a hailstorm. What fruit did survive wasn’t robust enough to go through maceration, so the year’s vintage featured more direct-press than usual. While recognizing the loss, Jérôme at the same time embraces the variation as proof of their hand-in-hand collaboration with the earth’s natural cycles.

On the whole though, says Jérôme, adopting biodynamic farming has increased their winery’s resistance to disaster. “The conventional method of winemaking that I learned in school helps when I need to fix something that’s going wrong, like a band-aid. The objective is to prevent these problems in the first place — that’s what making natural wine is about. Doing everything to avoid the problems which [some would] solve after the fact with products.”

“It’s like the human body. If you don’t really care about your body, if you don’t eat well, then you can endanger your body. You need to take care to carry on well. Winemaking is the same: if the vineyards are in good health, if the soil is in good health, then your wine should not have problems. You can only produce and produce and produce if you’re taking care, and feeling.”

Certification: Organic.

L’ivraie:— Back to the topl'ivraie

L’ivraie tech sheet

L’ivraie is a type of rye grass that is often found mixed in with wheat. There is a passage in the bible that refers to the need to separate the rye grass out from the wheat. Jerome named this cuvée after the rye grass to represent the supposed bad reputation of Ugni Blanc as an inferior grape.

Age of Vines: Average of 40 Years

Yields: 40 hl/ha

Soil: Clay and limestone

Varieties: Ugni Blanc (50%), Viognier (40%), Clairette (10%)

Vinification Method: The vineyards are plowed by hand and have never seen chemicals. Yields are very low and the grapes are hand-harvested at maximum ripeness, where they go into 7-year-old 225-liter barrels for fermentation. It is aged in barrel for 18-20 months before bottling with zero added sulfur.

Pas a Pas— Back to the top

Rge-Pas ˆ Pas-etiqVecAge of Vines: 35-55 Years

Yields: 30 hl/ha

Pruning Method: Cordon de Royat

Soil: Clay and limestone

Varieties: 65% Carignan, 15% Alicante, 20% Grenache

Vinification Method: The vineyards are plowed by hand and have never seen chemicals. Yields are very low and the grapes are hand-harvested at their maximum ripeness, destemmed and gently pressed. The fruit is fermented in stainless steel and the wine rests in tanks before it is bottled without filtration.

L’Abri:— Back to the top

Age of Vines: 35 Years

Yields: 30 hl/ha

Pruning Method: Cordon de Royat

Soil: Clay and limestone

Varieties: 100% Cabernet Sauvignon

Vinification Method: The vineyards are plowed by hand and have never seen chemicals. Yields are very low and the grapes are hand-harvested at maximum ripeness, destemmed and gently pressed. 15-day fermentation, aged on lees in tank and matured 2-4 months. No added sulfites.

En Avante Doute— Back to the top

Age of Vines: 40 years old

Yields: 30 hl/ha

Pruning Method: Cordon de Royat

Soil: Clay and limestone

Varieties: 100% Grenache

Making of (2024): The vineyards are plowed by hand and have never seen chemicals. Yields are very low and the grapes are hand-harvested at their maximum ripeness, destemmed and gently pressed. The wine ferments for 15-20 days then ages in concrete tanks and barrels. Zero sulfur added; bottled in June 2025.

Previous vintage aged in wooden tanks.

Coulée Douce— Back to the top 

Age of Vines: 15 years

Yields: 30 hl/ha

Pruning Method: Cordon de Royat

Soil: Clay and limestone

Varieties: 100% Syrah

Vinification Method: Three weeks of carbonic maceration, then elevage in large barrels for 5-6 months. Zero sulfur added.

Sueures Froides:— Back to the top

Age of Vines: 30 Years

Yields: 30 hl/ha

Pruning Method: Cordon de Royat

Soil: Clay and limestone

Varieties: 100% Grenache

Vinification Method: The vineyards are plowed by hand and have never seen chemicals. Yields are very low and the grapes are hand-harvested at maximum ripeness, destemmed and gently pressed. Pressed juice of En Avant Doute 2009. Aged 20 months in oak.

La Chasse aux Papillons:— Back to the top

Age of Vines: Average of 40 Years

Yields: 40 hl/ha

Soil: Clay and limestone

Varieties: Sauvignon Blanc

Vinification Method: The vineyards are plowed by hand and have never seen chemicals. Yields are very low and the grapes are hand-harvested at maximum ripeness, where they go into 7-year-old 225-liter barrels for fermentation. It is aged in barrel for 18-20 months before bottling with zero added sulfur.

Les Fleurs Sauvages

Grapes (2024): Roussane, Mondeuse Blanche, Viognier, Altesse, Vermentino

Vines: 9 years old

Soil: Clay and limestone

Making of (2024): Grapes are direct pressed, fermented and aged on the lees in amphora and barrels during six months, without batonnage or racking. Bottled with zero sulfites in April 2025.

L’Accroche Cœur

Jérôme Jouret L'Accroche Coeur | Vivino English

Grapes (2024): Merlot (70%), Syrah (30%)

Vines: 31-36 years old

Soil: Clay and limestone

Making of (2024): Syrah is direct-pressed, while Merlot is de-stemmed and left to macerate (“float”) on the pressed Syrah juice for 3 weeks. Wine is then pressed and aged in concrete tanks and barrels for 8 months. Bottled in June 2025 with zero sulfites added.