With nine hectares in one of France's smallest appellations (less than 200 hectares are planted in Côte Rôtie) Jean-Michel and Monique Gerin are a happy couple, as demand for their excellent wines has far exceeded their ability to produce them. A recent sign on the door of the unassuming chais (or cellar) read "No Côte Rôtie or Condrieu available until 2005"! Such are the travails of one of the Wine Spectator "Rising Stars of the Rhône". Jean-Michel Gerin merely shrugs his shoulders, smiles a wry grin, and launches into a description of the latest plot of scrub-forest he has bought and started to clear for plantation with his beloved Syrah.

Unwilling to be satisfied by the challenge of farming slopes that most expert skiers would think twice about before descending, the Gerins have also launched into the production of one of the world's most exotic and difficult white wines, Condrieu. Two hectares of densely planted Viognier on incredibly steep, laboriously terraced parcels, straight up from the hamlet of Vèrin, complete the Gerin estate. They have been christened Coteau de La Loye.

Both Jean-Michel and Monique come from Côte Rôtie vignerons (or winemakers) families, but their domaine has been built up from scratch by their own efforts. Through acquisition of vineyards, clearing and replantation of scrub forest on suitably classified terroirs, tremendous hours of toil on the "roasted slope", and a few weeks each year experimenting with the fruits of their labor in their modern cellar, they now produce some of the world's finest wines. Three reds are made chez Gerin: Champin le Seigneur from the older vines of the Fourvier and Lesardes parcels in the Côte Brune, and two single-vineyard offerings; one from Les Grandes Places and the other from the famous La Landonne. Each wine has its own personality, an individuality born of terroir with its unique appeal, its own voice and manner of expression. Visitors frequently describe Gerin's wines not in wine-speak but in words more suited to music, art, even meteorology.

The secret starts in the vineyards: they produce the raw materials for Jean Michel's entertainment and passion. The slopes in both Côte Rôtie and Condrieu are too steep for trellising the vines, so each vine is individually staked, as though anchored to keep it from tumbling down the hillside. After a strict pruning the vines are trained upwards on the stake, producing at most eight grape bunches per vine. With a green harvest at débourrement (or bud burst) and the withering heat, nature seems generous in allowing Gerin an average yield of 25 hectoliters per hectare. With 10,000 vines per hectare this amounts to slightly more than a glass of wine per vine. For Gerin ripeness is the key to great fruit and sensational wine, and complete phenological ripeness can only be achieved when the vine carries a low yield and concentrates its photosynthetic efforts on fewer bunches of grapes.

Generally the Condrieu Côteau de Lla Loye is brought in first, with courageous pickers rappelling down the slopes, baskets fixed to their backs. After a gentle pneumatic pressing the wine is passed into 50% new oak barrels for fermentation and malolactic fermentation. The wine rests sur lie (or on their lees) until bottling some 10 to 12 months later after an egg white fining. Always exotic, Gerin's Condrieu has hints of lemon zest, honeysuckle, white peaches, apricot, and even pineapple, with a touch of clove and anise for spice, and superb fruit-acid balance. The 1999 Côteau de La Loye was harvested at 16º potential alcohol and shows remarkable grip and definition, with a very long finish.

The Côte Rôties are all destemmed, cold macerated for three days, fermented in stainless steel tanks, and then decanted into barrels for the malolactic and aging. Champin le Seigneur is a blend of 90% Syrah and 10% Viognier, aged for 18 months in 33% new oak. By Appellation Contrôlée law, Côte Rôtie can contain up to 20% Viognier, as long as it is planted in the same parcel as the Syrah, harvested at the same time ( they do not ripen at the same time, making root stock selection decisive), and vinified in the same vats. The result for Champin le Seigneur is a Côte Rôtie of extraordinary elegance, with an exotic lift to the bouquet and silky finesse in the mouth. Complex fruit flavors of blackberry and blueberry integrate perfectly with the chocolatey tannins.

The pride of the domaine, La Landonne and Les Grandes Places, are both 100% Syrah and aged in 100% new oak barrels for 18 to 20 months. Recently Jean-Michel has experimented with American oak to complement his normal selection of several French forests and variable toasts in the barrels. He now feels that American oak is particularly suited to syrah, and has included up to 20% new American oak barrels for aging the single-vineyard wines. While both La Landonne and Les Grandes Places are dense, super-rich, intensely flavored wines, the La Landonne seems brooding and darker; a tempest in the bottle. Les Grandes Places has broader, redder fruit and is perhaps more refined, with better breed; a foggy ocean mist compared to La Landonne's thunderstorm.

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