Wines & Producers

In selecting producers for the Joli Vin portfolio, the starting place is invariably the hard work that takes place in the vineyard throughout the year. After all, the winemakers who animate this catalog are first and foremost farmers. They tend their vines throughout the year and grow the fruit they work with. In choosing our producers therefore, the conversation begins with the physical labor that takes place well before grapes arrive at the cellar door: the careful pruning during the winter months to ensure high quality grapes in the following vintage; the turning of topsoil to bring oxygen into the ground and encourage roots to extend further into the subsoil for nutrients; the bud thinning during the spring to ensure flowering buds will be evenly spaced and well aerated; the green harvest mid-summer which helps keep yields low, concentration high and the vine clean and healthy; the training of the leaf canopy as the growing season progresses to provide for maximum aeration and healthy fruit. On and on goes the arduous but necessary work in service of exceptional wines. In short, the means is every bit as important and essential to us as the end result.

All of Joli Vin’s producers are passionate in their commitment to the intelligent stewardship of their land and practice minimal intervention. They are engaged in growing grapes in harmony with the surrounding landscape, whether they are certified organic, biodynamic or practicing what has come to be known as lutte raisonnée. While the terms and degree of certification may vary from producer to producer, they are all committed toeffectively creating a fertilizer, pesticide and herbicide-free zone and are in favor of natural growth, diversity and competition in the vineyard. We at Joli Vin, like our producers, believe that this is the most sensible and sustainable way to farm and moreover, in our pursuit of wines with true character and soul, we continually find that grapes farmed in this manner lead to wines with the greatest expression of terroir, authenticity and sense of place.

This is what we look for in the wines we select and the producers with whom we choose to work. Whether from the noble terroirs of Burgundy, the green, westward leaning hills of the Jura close to the Swiss border, or the hot and windy stretches of dry land in the Roussillon edging toward Spain, the wines themselves are the truest expression of and the greatest measure of their success. Without exception, these producers are all exemplars of restraint and a more delicate hand in their winemaking practices, working hard throughout the year in the vineyard and then adopting a non-interventionist approach in the cellar. They create wines not of brute strength, but rather of balance and finesse which inspire and excite the senses. The wines express themselves with transparency, energy, tension and freshness.

As an importer and distributor in the San Francisco Bay Area, Joli Vin is honored to represent these hard working vignerons before a discriminating audience in northern California. We look seriously upon the task of representing these artisans, the land and the work itself which all participate in a dynamic conversation in the creation of these wines. We look forward to our clients learning about these producers and discovering the same pleasures and rewards in these bottles as we have found in finding and bringing them to your table.

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