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James Leonardo De Sa, export director, M.Chapoutier.

Photo courtesy M. Chapoutier

All in the family: 200 years of French wine

By Jim Gordon and Leeta Liepins

Published 2:31 PDT, Fri July 18, 2025

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Our City Tonight was excited to experience an amazing wine lunch “Sip & Savour—a Rhone Valley Rendezvous at Le Crocodile”. The delicious food served was also expertly paired with M. Chapoutier wines. James Leonardo De Sa, the Canadian export director for M. Chapoutier wines, sat with us after the lunch to share more details about this iconic and long-standing family winery from France.

OCT: In your opinion, what makes this 200-year-old winery so unique and enduring?

JLDS: This winery has been making wine for over 200 years now. It all started in 1808, and they are now into the family’s 8th generation as a new Chapoutier child was born last year. So, this is 8 generations of wine makers focusing on savoir faire and terroir (the characteristic taste and flavour imparted to a wine by the environment in which it is produced ie. soil, topography and climate) especially. The winery is based in Tain-l’Hermitage at the foot of the Hermitage hill which is about an hour south of Lyon. We focus on showing the different terroir available in the Rhone Valley and beyond and our goal is to make wines that reflect all of those characteristics of terroir.

OCT: We loved what you said during the lunch, the interesting point that the wine makers do not want you to be able to guess that this wine is from M. Chapoutier. They don’t want to be predictable, and they strive to make wine so unique that every single vintage is a surprise and ultimately reflects the terroir from where it’s from. Let’s discuss the four different wines that you have brought to share today.

JLDS: The M. Chapoutier wines are not about us (the winery) but rather everything about terroir. Outside of the Rhone Valley, the first estate that we acquired was called Bilal Haut in Roussillon and this first white wine is a blend of Grenache, Marsanne, and Roussanne grapes. This is a very typical blend, and it is not made as a signature style because we again do not want to make a wine that consumers can guess that it is a M. Chapoutier wine. We want you to be able to recognize the Roussillon appellation. This is very fresh tasting wine and available here in BC.

We avoid too much usage of wood so the focus is on vinification, (conversion of the grape’s juice into wine by fermentation) aging, and maturation of the wine in stainless steel for the whites and mostly concrete tanks for the reds in order to maintain the terroir first.

OCT: And the red Bilal Haut has a similar origin story?

JLDS: Exactly, it is basically the brother or sister wine coming from the same area outside of the Rhone Valley. This is near the Mediterranean Sea, closer to the Spanish border. We are using two main grapes that we also find in the Rhone Valley, Grenache and Syrah, and we blend them together, age the wine in concrete tanks for the vinification to preserve the fruit of the wine and ultimately the uniqueness of the terroir. This is a very balanced wine and is easy to pair with food. It is also a very accessible wine in terms of affordability for an everyday wine to serve.

OCT: The last two wines are more of a specialty in the portfolio, both made with the same grapes but with very different results.

JLDS: Yes, if you have the opportunity to sample both wines together then you will be able to taste the distinct differences.

Belleruche in English means “pretty beehive” in reference to all the honey production that occurs in the Côtes du Rhône and the Rhone Valley. Using the same vinification process with the Grenache/Syrah grapes and aged six months in concrete tanks, the wine is still so perceptibly different due to the contrast in terroir and climate.

OCT: You have said this last wine that we’re going to talk about is one of your favourites.

JLDS: This one, Les Meysonniers Crozes-Hermitage, is a cru (cru translates to “growth” and in relation to wine, indicates a superior growing site linked to terroir) and this wine is 100 per cent Syrah. Crozes-Hermitage is one of the larger appellations in the northern Rhone Valley and is recognized for making world renown Syrah with older vines around 30-40 years old. This wine is excellent and remarkably affordable too. At M. Chapoutier we want to make French wine approachable and accessible to everyone. We even have braille on our labels for inclusivity.

OCT: Accessible, pleasurable, and affordable; you do not hear that very often regarding French wines but M. Chapoutier wines are truly all of that and more.

The Vancouver International Wine Festival will be featuring France as its theme country March 7-14, 2026. Check out M. Chapoutier wines at your local BCL and for more information go to Chapoutier.com