Since taking on his grandfather’s 8ha of vines in 2006 David Teyssier has been on a journey. Starting the way his grandfather had worked selling to the local cave co-op, he was curious early on about moving to organics, but told by the head of the cave co-op to ‘do as the others do’. He did and the low prices that are paid for the grapes led to him taking on a full 35 ha of vines to try and make enough money to survive. The work was hard, not financially rewarding and he didn’t even drink his own wine – something had to change.

It was the winemaker Valentin Valles who introduced David to natural wine back in 2010 and this coupled with another job he had taken on, managing the vineyards at the historic, organic estate Domaine De Gressac, inspired the radical change he was to undertake. In 2014 he converted the vineyards to organics and the local cave co-op would not buy or vinify the fruit. Fortunately this coincided with the rise of natural winemakers in the area wanting to buy organic fruit – people like Sébastien Chatillon, Les Frères Soulier and the aforementioned Vallès. It wasn’t hard to find buyers for his beautiful organic grapes from some very beautiful terroir.

He continues to sell fruit to these friends and a few others, but with encouragement from Valentin, started producing under his own name in 2018, with the help and knowledge of his peers. Alongside this as you might expect from the name of the estate, Teyssier and his wife raise chickens, sheep (which pasture in the vines all winter) and also produce delicious olive oil. They have 8 ha of vines, 3 ha for fodder, 1 ha of olive trees, 10 sheep and 30 hens

In this area grapes generally ripen a full ten days later than further south in the region, the climate more similar to the southern Ardèche. Reflecting this and his work in the vineyard, the wines really shine through with delicious ripe pure fruit, but with freshness and balance. David is keen for his wines to be as accessibly priced as possible and we think they represent quite outstanding value for the quality on show.