The co-op at Estézargues has long had a reputation for churning out some of the best value bottles the Rhône Valley has to offer. Pre-1989, the vignerons were just blending together the grapes from all the members’ plots. Then Jean-François Nicq took charge, deciding instead to bottle each plot’s grapes as their own cuvée, to show off everything the terroir of each had to offer. By the end of the 1990s there wasn’t a sniff of SO2 to be found – in fact there was nothing artificial to be found at all. Au naturel, as they say in France. Works for us!