Journal

We had an unexpectedly sun-kissed tour of the Ardèche earlier this month and our first stop of the trip was to see Paulette of Petite Nature at her sleepy and charmingly ramshackle home in Quintenas. Driving through the iconic Hermitage and Saint-Joseph vineyards around Tournon, we made a steady and winding incline to the very northwest of the region, to find bucolic peace and quiet, and a tiny cellar beneath the house full to bursting with barrels and tanks of fermenting wine.

Some of the bottles we opened on that trip are now in our shop and available to order in as limited quantities as we've come to expect from this in-demand grower. From the 2024 vintage we were able to re-up the last of Paulette's gorgeous domaine Gamay, Tombée du Ciel, and Sorcières, her inspired riff on Côte-Rôtie. Both are tasting fantastic with the extra time in the bottle and suit the change of season perfectly.

Additionally there is the new L'Amour a la Plage, which this year was aged for one year in barrel, creating something even more textured, herbal and aromatic. From 2025 the impossibly vibrant Chalouper and Monde Nouveau, both made in the infusion style (a nod to her time working with Daniel Sage), both bottled in the November following harvest, eschewing a typical élevage to harness their nascent aromatics and energy.  

Sat around the kitchen table over a slow lunch of Caillette Ardéchoise, potatoes and green salad with Paulette and her son Gavin, we thought about how the the wines - along with some older bottles and magnums she surprised us with - have never tasted better. Watching her work evolve each year, and now having chance to reflect on some of the wines from back when we started to work together was a special moment. Plush, perfumed and elegant, with a fluid, fine-grained texture that, to us, makes for some of the most expressive in the Ardèche. Read a more detailed profile here if you are still yet to get to know.