There’s a common saying in London town: you wait ages for one, then two buses turn up at the same time. So, we’re delighted to offer a second new addition to our Rhône portfolio in as many weeks. Before hanging up his corkscrew in 2017, Jean-François Malsert owned the hippest wine bar in Tournon-sur-Rhône, Carafe aux Folies. With his mop of blond hair and sharp palate, Malsert rubbed shoulders with the great and good of the northern Rhône before crossing the floor to join them. 

Malsert, or Jeff to his friends, farms seven hectares of hillside vines perched high above the Rhône river around the town of Sécheras in the northern Ardèche. Jeff started out with his grandfather’s old, abandoned vineyards, which he has replanted using massale Syrah and Gamay. Further plots of older vines have followed, including. Syrah, Roussanne and Chasselas. Many of these are planted above 300 metres and therefore deemed too high to take the Saint-Joseph appellation. 

Malsert works his soils—thin granitic sands laced with schistous rocks—with the help of his two mules, Lana and Cassius, whose hooves, noses and ears adorn the labels. Cassius, a giant beast worthy of a Homerian epic, is the more obstinate of the two, Jeff tells us! He’s practising organic farming, too, though points out that his grandfather’s soils have never been treated with chemicals.  

In the cellar, Malsert draws on the wisdom of Rhône masters such as Gonon, Trollat and Faurie, while embracing the supple, perfumed sensibilities of new traditionalists, including Dard & Ribo, and Herve Souhaut. The Syrahs are wild fermented with whole clusters, bringing an engaging, bunchy character without overt greenness. Meanwhile, his preference for concrete, amphora and old oak lets his fruit sing.

Had the two sets of wines not been so complementary, we might have thought twice about launching a pair of new growers based in the same appellation so close together. Where Jean-Baptiste Souillard crafts cerebral, enigmatic Rhône wines, Malsert’s wines billow out of the glass with striking perfumes of violet, dark minerals and juicy black cherry, always underscored by vibrant, high-country freshness. Yet, for the Saint-Joseph reds, there is always an underlying gastronomic structure. Jeff’s partner, Saïda, a talented chef, would not have it any other way.