Alain Jaume

The Jaume family has been growing grapes on the northern edge of Châteauneuf-du-Pape since 1826, when Mathieu Jaume put down roots in the commune of Orange. Six generations later, the family name sits on some of the southern Rhône's most consistently admired wines.

The modern chapter opens in 1979, when Alain and Odile Jaume took over a modest 4.5 hectares and gave the property its name, Domaine Grand Veneur, after the Grand Huntsman of a nearby royal hunting ground. Alain turned out to be a quiet innovator. In 1986 he became one of the first growers in Châteauneuf to experiment with ageing in new French oak, and through the 1990s he sharpened the estate's focus on red wine. Careful acquisitions followed, among them Clos de Sixte in Lirac and Château Mazane in Vacqueyras, building a family portfolio that now covers roughly 90 hectares across nine appellations.

Today Alain works alongside his children Christophe, Sébastien and Hélène, with the brothers leading the winemaking. The estate vineyards are certified organic, worked with light ploughing, vegetal compost and hand harvesting, and green harvesting keeps yields honest. The terroir does the rest: galets roulés and clay-limestone on the Châteauneuf plateau, sandier soils in Lirac, and the wild scrub of the garrigue that scents nearly every bottle.

The result is a range that runs from an everyday Côtes du Rhône to benchmark Châteauneuf, all of it recognizably Provençal, and all of it made with the same attention to detail.