Jean-Luc Colombo

Rhône Valley,France

Located in the Rhône Valley in the village of Cornas, Jean-Luc Colombo has been producing top quality wines since the 1980s.

In a nutshell: Jean-Luc’s fulfilment of a childhood dream came with the purchase of his first vineyard, a small parcel of old vines planted on a granite hillside overlooking the village of Cornas. The 1987 release of Jean-Luc’s first vintage of Cornas Les Ruchets was a great success, taking the French wine world by storm, and becoming the first in a long series of vintages of what is universally regarded as Colombo’s iconic wine.

Jean-Luc Colombo himself is a man passionate about cuisine and fine wine. Jean-Luc and his wife Anne (now President of the Cornas Association) have overseen Jean-Luc Colombo wines since the first plot was purchased in the 1980s, and in 2010 their daughter, Laure, joined the family Domaine. A trained viticulturist and oenologist, her first vintages have already received critical acclaim.

Over time, the range has steadily grown to include red and white wines from the Rhône Valley. Jean-Luc also has a great love for the Mediterranean, and the Blue Coast in particular, where he pioneered vine growing, producing his first vintage in 2012. Each of the wines in the range has a distinctive label, carefully created by painter and family friend of the Colombo family, Marie-Annick Dutreil.

The terroir: The Domaine vineyards are located in the village of Cornas, on the right bank on the steep slopes of the Northern Rhône Valley. The climate and terroir here create perfect growing conditions to produce the greatest expression of Syrah’s character, with granite soils and a delicate Mediterranean influence. They have farmed their vineyards using organic methods for many years, avoiding the use of pesticides. Their vineyards at Cornas and St Péray are now certified. Biodiversity of fauna and flora is of prime importance for the Colombo family. They actively encourage wildlife into their vineyard with natural hedgerow planting, bird houses and planting rosemary and other flowers to attract bees. Indeed protecting the bee population is so important to the family that they donate some of the profits from Côtes du Rhône Les Abeilles (bees) to beekeeping charities, and the name of their ‘home’ vineyard of Les Ruchets is also inspired by this commitment, coming from the French word for beehive.

The Jean-Luc Colombo ‘personality’: Show respect for nature and the unique qualities of each and every terroir, to create wines with proper balance that pair with great cuisine.

Jean-Luc Colombo Le Vallon de l’Aigle 2018