The inability to travel during COVID times has meant introducing new producers to our Lo-Fi family has been challenging to say the least. But when one of our Rhone producers reached out earlier in the year and mentioned Elodie’s wines, we were immediately intrigued. After getting in touch we have learnt a great deal of Elodie, her family history and her path to her own domaine. We cant wait to visit and break bread with her if all goes to plan in 2022.

Domaine Elodie Jaume was created in 2017, after the division of her famous family’s property in Châteauneuf-du-Pape, held since 1826. Elodie was deeply interested and and excited to cultivate her very own 5ha plot on the northern slopes of the Cabrières plateau. Here her old Grenache (70-90 year old), Syrah (50 year old) and 70-year-old Mourvèdre vines sink deep into a sandy-red clay soil with rolled pebbles. These great Rhône grape varieties express all their purity, finesse and freshness on this magnificent terroir.

Across her plots herbal teas and biodynamic preparations are applied rigorously, area by area. These enhance the life and vitality of the soil and plants. Elodie’s fascination with biodynamics had come from time spent working at Cooper Mountain estate in Oregon, USA, followed by stints at other certified vineyards throughout the Rhone. She is deeply committed to organic farming and biodynamic practices are an obvious way to express the full identity of these great soils. In addition to this she hand sows cover crops in-between her rows to continue the addition of diversity in her vineyards.

From the outset, in order to better understand the intrinsic identity of each of its 8 plots, she made the choice to separate the grapes in small vats. Élodie has decided to vinify the wine as naturally as possible. After the first harvest she decided to cut out sulphur completely and the wines are made now with zero additions whatsoever. Maturing in concrete vats has also become important for her, giving the wines a fine tannic structure, delicacy and freshness.

The first release in Australia is her Cote du Rhone Blend and in the coming years we look forward to welcoming her very first classified Châteauneuf-du-Pape wines. Elodie is an immensely exciting producer paving a way for a new wave of young biodynamic growers stamping themselves on the great terroir’s of the Southern Rhone.