Jean-Luc Colombo is a

French wine French wine is produced all throughout France, in quantities between 50 and 60 million hectolitres per year, or 7–8 billion bottles. France is one of the largest wine producers in the world, along with Italian, Spanish, and America ...

producer and ''

negociant A winemaker or vintner is a person engaged in winemaking. They are generally employed by wineries or wine companies, where their work includes: *Cooperating with viticulturists *Monitoring the maturity of grapes to ensure their quality and to deter ...

'' in the

Rhône Valley The Rhône ( , ; wae, Rotten ; frp, Rôno ; oc, Ròse ) is a major river in France and Switzerland, rising in the Alps and flowing west and south through Lake Geneva and southeastern France before discharging into the Mediterranean Sea. At Ar ...

. While Colombo produces several ''

Appellation d'Origine Contrôlée An appellation is a legally defined and protected geographical indication primarily used to identify where the grapes for a wine were grown, although other types of food often have appellations as well. Restrictions other than geographical boun ...

'' (AOC)

wines Wine is an alcoholic drink typically made from fermented grapes. Yeast consumes the sugar in the grapes and converts it to ethanol and carbon dioxide, releasing heat in the process. Different varieties of grapes and strains of yeasts are m ...

in the Rhône, such as

Châteauneuf-du-Pape Châteauneuf-du-Pape (; Provençal: Castèu-Nòu-De-Papo) is a commune in the Vaucluse department in the Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur region in Southeastern France. The village lies about to the east of the Rhône and north of the town of Avign ...

and Hermitage, he is most noted for being a pioneer in the revitalization of the Cornas wine region.H. Karis ''The Chateauneuf-du-Pape Wine Book'' pg 173, 228, 299 First Edition Kavino Publishing 2009 In reference to a Remington Norman quote about the need for a "media star" to bring attention to the Cornas region, ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...

'' wine writer Frank Prial noted that Jean-Luc Colombo has done much to fill that need.F. Prial '
Wine Talk; A Passionate Presence in the Rhone Valley
'' ''The New York Times'' April 1st, 1998 The winery's founder, Jean-Luc Colombo, has become a notable

wine personality Instead of common selection criteria for the entire list, notability of people involved should be checked against the description of each sector. Sectors are arranged from cultivation through processing, starting from vineyards to consumption ad ...

due to his strong and outspoken opinions on the future of the French wine industry and on such

winemaking Winemaking or vinification is the production of wine, starting with the selection of the fruit, its fermentation into alcohol, and the bottling of the finished liquid. The history of wine-making stretches over millennia. The science of wine and ...

topics as

extended maceration Maceration is the winemaking process where the phenolic materials of the grape—tannins, coloring agents (anthocyanins) and flavor compounds—are leached from the grape skins, seeds and stems into the must. To macerate is to soften by soakin ...

and organic viticulture. Since opening up his

Cornas Cornas is a Communes of France, commune in the département of Ardèche in the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes Regions of France, region in southern France. The name is Celtic for "burnt land." Population Economy The region is famous for wine, which i ...

-based wine-consulting firm in 1984, Colombo has worked with over 100 estates in the Rhône Valley including such notable producers as Domaine de la Janasse,

Chapoutier Chapoutier, or ''Maison M. Chapoutier'', is a winery and négociant business situated in Tain-l'Hermitage in the Rhône region in France. Chapoutier produces wine from appellations across the Rhône region, but it is typically their top Hermitage ...

and

Château Fortia Château Fortia is a French wine producing estate in the Châteauneuf-du-Pape (AOC), Châteauneuf-du-Pape region of the Rhône Valley (wine), Rhône Valley. With a history dating back to the eighteenth century (on land that has been producing wi ...

. He has also influenced many young Rhône winemakers of the late 20th and early 21st century including

Jacques Grange Jacques Grange, born in 1944, is a French interior designer. Biography After completing his training at the École Boulle and the École Camondo, Grange made a career as a decorator in France and abroad from the 1970s. His main customers includ ...

of the

Louis Roederer Louis Roederer is a producer of champagne based in Reims, France. Founded in 1776, the business was inherited and renamed by Louis Roederer in 1833. It remains as one of the few independent and family-run ''maisons de champagne'' (champagne house ...

-owned estate Delas Frères and André Brunel of the Châteauneuf-du-Pape estate Les Cailloux.C. Kissack '
Jean-Luc Colombo
'' The Wine Doctor. Accessed: February 24th, 2010

History

A native of

Marseilles Marseille ( , , ; also spelled in English as Marseilles; oc, Marselha ) is the prefecture of the French department of Bouches-du-Rhône and capital of the Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur region. Situated in the camargue region of southern Franc ...

, Jean-Luc Colombo first studied

pharmacology Pharmacology is a branch of medicine, biology and pharmaceutical sciences concerned with drug or medication action, where a drug may be defined as any artificial, natural, or endogenous (from within the body) molecule which exerts a biochemica ...

before developing an interest in winemaking.E. Arnold '
Winemaker Talk: Jean-Luc Colombo
'' ''Wine Spectator'' April 26, 2007 After earning degrees in both pharmacology and

enology Oenology (also enology; ) is the science and study of wine and winemaking. Oenology is distinct from viticulture, which is the science of the growing, cultivation, and harvesting of grapes. The English word oenology derives from the Greek word ' ...

from the

University of Montpellier The University of Montpellier (french: Université de Montpellier) is a public university, public research university located in Montpellier, in south-east of France. Established in 1220, the University of Montpellier is one of the oldest univ ...

Colombo opened up a part-time wine consulting firm with his wife, Anne, in 1984. Despite having strong, and sometimes contrarian opinions that rankled the traditionalist winemakers of the region, Colombo's wine consulting firm blossomed and he began devoting himself full-time to wine. In 1987, the Colombos purchased an 8

hectare The hectare (; SI symbol: ha) is a non-SI metric unit of area equal to a square with 100-metre sides (1 hm2), or 10,000 m2, and is primarily used in the measurement of land. There are 100 hectares in one square kilometre. An acre is a ...

plot of vineyard land in Cornas and by 1994 was producing wine under their own label. In 1998, they further expanded as a ''negociant'' selling wines from across the Rhône Valley including the

Côtes du Rhône AOC Côtes du Rhône is a wine-growing ''Appellation d'Origine Contrôlée'' (AOC) for the Rhône wine region of France, which may be used throughout the region, also in those areas which are covered by other AOCs. In a limited part of the region, ...

and ''vin de pays'' from the Languedoc-Roussillon region of southern France. Jean is an avid Paint Baller and enjoys finger-painting. After discovering an abandoned vineyard of old vines in a state park near his hometown of Marseilles, Colombo began producing

Provence wine Provence (Provençal) wine comes from the French wine-producing region of Provence in southeast France. The Romans called the area ''provincia nostra'' ("our province"), giving the region its name. Just south of the Alps, it was the first Roman pr ...

under his Côte Bleue

wine label Wine labels are important sources of information for consumers since they tell the type and origin of the wine. The label is often the only resource a buyer has for evaluating the wine before purchasing it. Certain information is ordinarily inclu ...

Winemaking philosophy

Jean-Luc Colombo counts

Bordeaux Bordeaux ( , ; Gascon oc, Bordèu ; eu, Bordele; it, Bordò; es, Burdeos) is a port city on the river Garonne in the Gironde department, Southwestern France. It is the capital of the Nouvelle-Aquitaine region, as well as the prefectur ...

-based consultant

Michel Rolland Michel Rolland (born December 24, 1947) is a Bordeaux-based oenologist, with hundreds of clients across 13 countries and influencing wine style around the world. "It is his consultancies outside France that have set him apart from all but a handful ...

and French enologist

Émile Peynaud Émile Peynaud (June 29, 1912 – July 18, 2004) was a French oenologist and researcher who has been credited with revolutionizing winemaking in the latter half of the 20th century, and has been called "the forefather of modern oenology". Biogr ...

as major influences on his views. Growing up in a family of

chefs A chef is a trained professional cook and tradesman who is proficient in all aspects of food preparation, often focusing on a particular cuisine. The word "chef" is derived from the term ''chef de cuisine'' (), the director or head of a kitche ...

has encouraged him to put "food-friendliness" in wine pairing as an important consideration in winemaking. In 2001, Colombo openly lamented the rising competition from New World wines, particularly those from

California California is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States, located along the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the List of states and territori ...

, describing the situation as ''"losing civilisation and vulgarising wine"''.T. Grange '
Holy Trinity
'' ''Decanter Magazine'' July 1st, 2001 Colombo is an outspoken advocate of organic

viticultural Viticulture (from the Latin word for ''vine'') or winegrowing (wine growing) is the cultivation and harvesting of grapes. It is a branch of the science of horticulture. While the native territory of ''Vitis vinifera'', the common grape vine, ran ...

practices as well as

green harvesting Viticulture (from the Latin word for ''vine'') or winegrowing (wine growing) is the cultivation and harvesting of grapes. It is a branch of the science of horticulture. While the native territory of ''Vitis vinifera'', the common grape vine, ran ...

and extended hang-time for more

physiological ripeness In viticulture, ripeness is the completion of the ripening process of wine grapes on the vine which signals the beginning of harvest. What exactly constitutes ripeness will vary depending on what style of wine is being produced ( sparkling, still, ...

.J. Gordon (ed) ''Opus Vino'' pg 437, DK Publishing New York 2010, He also believes firming in destemming clusters prior to

fermentation Fermentation is a metabolic process that produces chemical changes in organic substrates through the action of enzymes. In biochemistry, it is narrowly defined as the extraction of energy from carbohydrates in the absence of oxygen. In food ...

with the

must Must (from the Latin ''vinum mustum'', "young wine") is freshly crushed fruit juice (usually grape juice) that contains the skins, seeds, and stems of the fruit. The solid portion of the must is called pomace and typically makes up 7–23% of t ...

going through an extended maceration on the skins. Colombo wines are typically aged 12–14 months in large ''foudres''

oak barrels Oak is used in winemaking to vary the color, flavor, tannin profile and texture of wine. It can be introduced in the form of a barrel during the fermentation or aging periods, or as free-floating chips or staves added to wine fermented in a v ...

that hold up to 120

hectoliters The litre (international spelling) or liter (American English spelling) (SI symbols L and l, other symbol used: ℓ) is a metric unit of volume. It is equal to 1 cubic decimetre (dm3), 1000 cubic centimetres (cm3) or 0.001 cubic metre (m3). ...

before spending an additional 1–3 years in standard 225-228 liter ''barriques'' of neutral oak. Wine writers, such as Jim Gordon, describe Colombo as an "Arch Modernizer" due to his advocacy of using modern viticulture and winemaking techniques to compete on the global wine market. With parts of the Rhône, particularly the northern regions of Hermitage and Côte-Rôtie, steeped in tradition, Colombo's view came across as controversial in the 1980s but slowly became accepted by a new wave of younger winemakers. About his reputation, Colombo has joked that he is ''"the most hated and loved winemaker in the Rhône''.

Wines

Jean-Luc Colombo produces a number of wines from AOC regions across the northern and southern Rhône including a Hermitage, Cornas, Châteauneuf-du-Pape,

Condrieu Condrieu () is a commune in the Rhône department in eastern France. It is situated on the right bank of the Rhône, some south of Vienne and 44 km south of Lyon, at the foot of the lower slopes of the Mont Monnet. It has an area of 921 h ...

Crozes-Hermitage Crozes-Hermitage (; oc, Croses e Ermitatge) is a commune in the Drôme department in southeastern France. Population Wine Wine is produced under the Crozes-Hermitage AOC designation. See also *Communes of the Drôme department The follo ...

, Saint-Joseph,

Saint-Péray Saint-Péray (; oc, Sant Pèire d'Ai) is a commune in the Ardèche department in the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes region in southern France. Population See also * Château de Crussol, located on the territory of the commune. *Communes of the Ard� ...

Tavel Tavel may refer to: Places * Tavel, Gard, a commune in France * Tavel AOC, a French wine ''appellation'' from the town of Tavel * Tafers (french: Tavel, link=no), a municipality in Switzerland People * Connie Tavel Connie Tavel is an Ameri ...

and Côtes du Rhône. Additionally they produce several labels of ''vin de pays'' and ''negociant'' wines from the Rhône and Languedoc-Roussillon and a separate Provence wine label, Côte Bleue.

References

External links

Official site
{{Coord, 44.9611, 4.8499, display=title Wineries of France