Eric Texier Domaine de Pergaud St-Julien St-Alban Vieille Serine 2014

St-Julien en St-Alban is a village and vineyard area at the southernmost edge of the northern Rhône Valley, on the western side of the Rhône River in the Ardèche. Its granite soils, higher altitude and greater overall warmth distinguish it from Texier’s other main vineyard site in Brézème, across the Rhône on the east side with limestone soils and slightly cooler temperatures. Like in Brézème, Texier owns some old Serine parcels, as well as some younger clonal Syrah plantings going back 30 to 40 years; for this bottling a well he uses only these “younger” vines. But unlike Brézème, St. Julien does not fall within the Côtes-du-Rhône boundaries, so this bottling–which is otherwise made identically–cannot bear the AOC on the label. The fruit is organically farmed and harvested by hand.