Sophie Eymin and Kevin Tichoux own one of the most excting plots of land in the Rhone Valley. You might assume this is the beautiful schsit and granite slopes on which they have planted in Syrah and Viognier in the village of Seysseul, or the little pacth of Cote Rotie in 'Le Trouchet', but is is neither (althought these are excellent to say the least). The plot of land is in fact their cellar, which is the only cellar in this soon to be elevated to AOP. Despite this incredible terroir being farmed by most of the great names of the northern Rhone, no one actually makes wine here, which is quite remarkable, given that the Romans were here all those years ago. 

Sophie grew up here, in this little village that sits on the eastern slops of the Rhone as it leaves Lyon and arrives at Vienne. It is one side of the narrowest point on the Rhone Valley vineyard area, and as you drive south from Lyon you can see why - great granite and schist buttreses stock out petulantly against the Rhones erosive power. It is on these slopes that Sophie and Kevin, who met at Montpellier University, have sought old scrub land and planted there vineyards. They met in 2010 and have since worked together around the world (SA, Chile and Burgundy) and then laterly doing 4 vintages with Stephan Ogier. When planting their new vineyards they have used the traditional 'Echals' vine training, using crossed stakes to train two vines, which is both incredibly labour intensive but also allows them to work with horse in their vineyards. The pruning is Guyot Poussard, and everything is worked organically. As well as vineyards in Seysseul, they also own a plot of Roussanne in St Joseph, rent a 0.3 plot of Condrieu, a 0.8 hectare plot in Crozes Hermitage (Mercurol) and own their plot in Cote Rotie. In all they have 4 ha and 10 plots. 

The Cellar is in the village itself (truly the only one in the area) where they have a fermentation room and an ageing room in which they keep several formats of french oak barrels. All wines are aged in oak for giving an additional, if subtle, extra layer to the wines. Typically wines spend a year ageing, and then bottled, but Cote Rotie and Avant Premiere spend an additional year in bottle.