Domaine de la Grosse Pierre

Pauline Passot took over the winemaking at the family estate, Domaine de la Grosse Pierre in Chiroubles in 2018. The vineyards, mostly in Chiroubles, are organic or in the process of conversion and all her wines are made using whole bunches and semi-carbonic maceration, with no added yeast, no added sulphur dioxide apart from a little at bottling, and extremely gentle extraction. The wines are aged 8–11 months in concrete tanks, with only the Grille-Midi subject to a very light oak influence.

Passot’s route into winemaking was indirect even though she now makes wines from the vineyards that belong to her family's domaine. She studied business, worked in a wine bar in Dublin and then as a sommelier at Pierre Orsi restaurant in Lyon until 2013. After vintages in New Zealand and Chile, the siren call of Beaujolais and Gamay proved too strong and she came back to the region to study in Beaune before making the first wine under her own name – Domaine Pauline Passot, Grille-Midi 2016 Chiroubles – from less than 1 ha (2.5 acres) of vines that belonged to her grandfather.