“Et si on plantait Seyssuel?”
Around Vienne, France, 30 kilometers south of Lyon, wine was already being cultivated by the Romans in the second century BC. Nineteenth-century postcards still show many hectares of vineyards on both banks of the Rhone. Phylloxera struck at the beginning of the twentieth century, along with war and economic crisis, and viticulture in the region was decimated. By the 1970s, almost nothing remained of major names like Côte Rotie and Condrieu, until a few visionary winemakers replanted vines. Although only on the right bank of the Rhone, nothing happened in Seyssuel on the left bank.
Until 1996. Yves Cuilleron, François Villard, and Pierre Gaillard knew of the old vineyard terraces on the slopes of Seyssuel. One fine day, Cuilleron casually asked his friends, "Et si on plantait Seyssuel?" It was quickly agreed upon, and so, under the name "Vins de Vienne," they began clearing the old terraces and planting them with vines. The first harvest was in 1998. For six years, they were the only winegrowers in Seyssuel, and the world remained relatively indifferent to their wine. But slowly, that changed. Other winegrowers began repurposing the old vineyards on the left bank of the Rhone, so that there are now seventeen winemakers with a total of around forty hectares of vines.
