Louis Chèze took over the family farm at Limony in 1978 with a single hectare of Saint-Joseph and a few rented rows. He had no formal training. He taught himself to make wine, leaning on advice from more experienced neighbours up and down the valley, and built the rest from there. Nearly fifty years on, the estate covers around 35 hectares across Saint-Joseph, Condrieu and Côte-Rôtie.

The domaine sits at the top of a hill on the right bank of the Rhône, about an hour south of Lyon. This is granite country, and it shows: the Syrahs are dark, peppery and firmly built, the Viogniers full of apricot and white flowers. The approach is parcel by parcel, each plot picked, made and aged on its own terms, rather than to one house recipe.

Chèze is also one of a small group of growers who, from 2000, brought the ancient hillside of Seyssuel back into production. The Romans made wine there; nobody had for well over a century. He is now handing the estate down to his children, Camille and Benoît.