The Raillères & the Sologne Sheep
Jérôme Vigne is a natural winemaker in the Raillères district, on the border of Alba la Romaine and Valvignères, in the heart of the Ardèche, Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes, France. Born in Ardèche and an agricultural employee for 23 years, he created his own farming operation in 2017 raising Sologne sheep to help preserve the endangered breed. In January 2021, when his father-in-law retired, he took over a family plot that had been cultivated for thirty years in the Raillères district — the birthplace of his partner's ancestors — and named his first vintage after it. In Spring 2022 he expanded, taking over a second, larger family plot of Syrah. Surrounded by winegrower friends, he learned natural winemaking from Léna and Alexis of Domaine des Bois Perdus, who welcomed him into their cellar while he waited to build his own. Today, Jérôme farms his family plots with minimal mechanisation, amends the soil with his sheep's manure, uses only sulfur and copper to fight disease, harvests by hand, and vinifies with native yeasts, zero added sulphites, and no filtration — producing wines of conviviality, sharing, and honest pleasure.
Twenty-Three Years & the Father-in-Law's Vines
The story of Jérôme Vigne begins not in a wine school or a famous cellar, but in the fields and farms of Ardèche, where he worked as an agricultural employee for 23 years — a long apprenticeship in the rhythms of the land, the patience of livestock, and the humility of manual labour. Born in Ardèche, he was deeply rooted in the terroir long before he ever bottled wine under his own name. In 2017, he created his own agricultural operation alongside his day job, raising Sologne sheep — an endangered breed — with a commitment to preserving genetic diversity and practising small-scale, respectful animal husbandry.
The turn toward wine came through family. Twenty-five years ago, Jérôme watched his partner's grandfather making wine for family consumption, and the seed was planted. His in-laws had been winegrowers for several generations. When his father-in-law retired in January 2021, Jérôme made the decision that would define his path: he took over the family plot that his father-in-law had cultivated for around thirty years, located in the Raillères district on the border of Alba la Romaine and Valvignères — the very place where his partner's ancestors were born. He named his first vintage Les Raillères, a tribute to the soil and the bloodline.
In Spring 2022, he expanded, taking over a second family plot — slightly larger than the first — planted to Syrah. Surrounded by winegrower friends, he learned the craft of natural winemaking from Léna and Alexis of Domaine des Bois Perdus, who generously welcomed him into their cellar to vinify while he waited to build his own. The result is a project that is intimate, familial, and deeply local: a man who spent two decades working other people's land, now farming his own family's vines with the same patience, the same hands, and the same sheep that have followed him from the pastures to the vineyard rows.
"Wine reminds me of conviviality, sharing and moments of taste pleasure. But to be able to fully appreciate these moments, it is important for me to know that we are drinking a natural wine, free of any chemicals, produced with respect for nature and ancestral traditions."
— Jérôme Vigne
Alba la Romaine & the Vallis Vinaria
Alba la Romaine and Valvignères are two ancient wine villages in the southern Ardèche, nestled in the valley historically known as the Vallis Vinaria — the Valley of Wine — a name bestowed by the Romans two millennia ago. The region is one of the oldest winegrowing areas in France; archaeological excavations at Alba have uncovered bronze vine leaves, amphorae, and jars from the Gallo-Roman period, and Pliny the Elder himself wrote of the carbunica grape discovered at Alba around 70 AD. This is not a landscape that recently discovered wine; it is a landscape that has been shaped by it for over 2,000 years.
The Raillères district, where Jérôme's first plot lies, sits on the border between these two villages, in a landscape of rolling limestone hills, granite outcrops, and garrigue-scrubbed plateaus typical of the Bas-Vivarais. The Ardèche terroir here is defined by a mix of limestone scree, clay-limestone soils, and granitic sands from the Massif Central — a combination that provides excellent drainage, natural water stress, and a mineral backbone that preserves acidity in the warm Mediterranean-influenced climate. The vineyards are not on the fertile plains but on the slopes and terraces where the Romans first planted their vines, catching the sun while benefiting from the cool night air that drains down from the Cévennes.
Jérôme farms with minimal mechanisation — he sometimes uses a tractor but tries to keep it as little mechanised as possible. The soil is amended with the manure of his own Sologne sheep, creating a closed-loop system where the animals that preserve an endangered breed also fertilise the vines that preserve a family tradition. Disease pressure is managed with only sulfur and copper — no pesticides, no fungicides, no systemic chemicals. All vineyard work is carried out manually, and the harvest is done by hand. The plots are small, family-scale, and farmed with the same attention to detail that Jérôme learned during his 23 years as an agricultural employee: watch, listen, intervene only when necessary, and respect the organism in front of you.
The Jérôme Vigne vineyards are located in the Raillères district, straddling the border of Alba la Romaine and Valvignères in the southern Ardèche. The site lies within the historic Vallis Vinaria — the Roman Valley of Wine — where viticulture has been practised for over 2,000 years. The landscape is a mosaic of limestone hills, granite outcrops from the Massif Central, and garrigue-scrubbed terraces. The first plot, taken over in 2021, had been cultivated by Jérôme's father-in-law for thirty years and is named after the district where his partner's ancestors were born. The second plot, acquired in Spring 2022, is slightly larger and planted to Syrah. The area is rural, agricultural, and deeply rooted in Roman and medieval history, with Alba la Romaine classified as a Village de Caractère and the site of extensive Gallo-Roman archaeological remains.
The Ardèche terroir around Alba la Romaine and Valvignères is defined by a complex geology of limestone scree, clay-limestone soils, and granitic sands derived from the Massif Central. This combination provides excellent natural drainage, significant water stress during the growing season, and a mineral backbone that preserves acidity and freshness in the wines despite the warm, Mediterranean-influenced climate. The slopes and terraces where Jérôme's vines grow are the same formations that supported Roman viticulture two millennia ago. The limestone contributes structure, finesse, and a subtle saline edge; the granite adds floral aromatics and a stony, graphite-like mineral character; and the clay provides body and water retention. The result is a terroir of balance and transparency — one that does not need cellar manipulation to express itself.
Jérôme Vigne's farming philosophy is rooted in the closed-loop logic of traditional agriculture. Since 2017, he has raised Sologne sheep — an endangered breed — and the manure from these animals is used to amend the vineyard soils, creating a self-sustaining fertility cycle that requires no external chemical inputs. The vineyard is worked with minimal mechanisation; while a tractor is occasionally used, the goal is to keep the soil as undisturbed as possible. Disease management relies exclusively on sulfur and copper — no pesticides, no synthetic fungicides, no herbicides. All canopy management, pruning, and harvesting are done by hand. This is not high-tech viticulture; it is the continuation of a family practice that stretches back through his father-in-law's thirty years and the generations before him, adapted to the principles of natural wine and ecological respect.
Jérôme's first vintages were made in the cellar of Domaine des Bois Perdus, thanks to the generosity of Léna and Alexis, who welcomed him while he waited to build his own facility. In the cellar, the philosophy is one of absolute non-intervention: fermentations start with native yeasts, the juices are monitored but no sulphites are added at any stage, and the wines are bottled unfiltered. The approach is deliberately simple — no selected yeasts, no enzymes, no fining agents, no temperature manipulation, no filtration. The goal is not to construct a wine but to protect the expression of the Raillères terroir and the health of the grapes that Jérôme has farmed by hand. The result is wine that is alive, slightly hazy, and deeply honest — a direct translation of limestone, granite, and family labour into liquid.
Native Yeasts & the Unfiltered Truth
For Jérôme Vigne, the cellar is not a place to improve upon the vineyard; it is a place to protect what the Raillères terroir and his family's hands have already achieved. The guiding principle is radical simplicity: native yeasts, no sulphites, no filtration, and careful monitoring without intervention. The wines are not corrected, polished, or homogenised; they are bottled as they exist — alive, honest, and slightly hazy — because Jérôme believes that to fully appreciate a moment of taste pleasure, one must know that the wine is free of chemicals and produced with respect for nature and ancestral traditions.
All grapes are hand-harvested from the family plots and brought to the cellar — first at Domaine des Bois Perdus, now increasingly in his own space. Fermentation begins spontaneously with the indigenous yeasts that populate the vineyard and the winery. Jérôme monitors the juices, watches the temperatures, and allows the process to unfold at its own pace. There is no rushing, no heating, no cooling, no addition of selected yeasts to force consistency. The result is a wine that varies with the vintage, with the plot, and with the microbial life of the cellar — a wine that is unique to each year and each tank.
No sulphites are added at any point — not at harvest, not during fermentation, not at bottling. The wines are unfiltered, meaning they retain their natural textures, aromatic complexities, and microbial vitality. Depending on the cuvée, élevage may occur in enameled stainless steel or used oak barrels — old wood that provides oxygen and rounding without imposing flavour. The goal is transparency: the wine should taste of Viognier from Raillères, or Syrah from the second plot, not of technique, technology, or cellar ambition. This is natural wine in its most direct form — not as a fashion statement, but as a family tradition renewed.
Sheep Manure, Native Yeasts & the Zero-Sulphur Covenant
The guiding principle of Jérôme Vigne is that the wine is made by the vineyard, spoken by the limestone and granite of the Vallis Vinaria, and bottled with nothing corrected. The Sologne sheep provide the fertility. The minimal mechanisation preserves the soil structure. The sulfur and copper provide the only chemical intervention. The hand harvest ensures pristine fruit. The native yeasts provide the fermentation. The absence of sulphites provides the honesty. And the unfiltered bottling provides the texture, the haze, and the life. The cellar is not a factory; it is a continuation of the family farm — a place where patience, ancestral tradition, and the refusal to homogenise translate Ardèche fruit into wine that is convivial, sharing, and unmistakably of its place.
Les Raillères & the Ardèche Cuvées
Jérôme Vigne produces a small, family-scale portfolio from his two plots in the Raillères district — wines that are spontaneously fermented, unfiltered, and bottled with zero added sulphites. The range is built around the varieties that thrive on the limestone and granite slopes of Alba la Romaine and Valvignères: Viognier from the first plot, and Syrah from the second. All wines share a common foundation: hand-harvested grapes from the family's own vines, native-yeast fermentation, no sulphur at any stage, no fining, and no filtration. The result is a range that is as familial as it is honest: textured, aromatic, slightly hazy, and deeply connected to the 2,000-year-old Vallis Vinaria — a testament to the conviction that the best wines are those that carry the memory of the people who made them and the land that grew them.
Vallis Vinaria & the Sologne Flock
Jérôme Vigne is not merely a winery; it is a proof that 23 years of agricultural labour, a flock of endangered sheep, and two family plots on the border of Alba la Romaine can produce wine of genuine honesty and familial truth. In an era when the Ardèche natural wine scene is increasingly populated by ambitious projects with imported amphorae and international distribution, Jérôme has built something rarer: a cellar that began in a neighbour's barn, a range that consists of two cuvées, and a philosophy that measures success in moments of conviviality rather than critical scores. The result is one of the most intimate and authentic projects in the southern Ardèche — a wine that is not natural by marketing but by necessity, tradition, and respect.
The legacy of Jérôme Vigne is the legacy of agricultural continuity. The same hands that fed Sologne sheep now prune Syrah. The same manure that fertilised pasture now amends vineyard rows. The same father-in-law who tended the Raillères plot for thirty years now watches his successor bottle the first zero-sulphur vintage. And the same Vallis Vinaria that produced wine for Pliny the Elder now produces wine for a small circle of friends, neighbours, and natural wine drinkers who understand that the best bottle is not the most famous but the most honest. The sheep are not a decorative touch; they are a structural necessity. The absence of sulphur is not a gesture of defiance; it is a family commitment. And the unfiltered haze is not an aesthetic; it is the truth of the yeast.
The future of the estate is tied to the future of the family plots and the flock that fertilises them. As Jérôme continues to farm the Raillères Viognier and the second-plot Syrah with minimal mechanisation, as he builds his own cellar and deepens his friendship with the natural wine community of Ardèche, and as the Sologne sheep continue to preserve their endangered breed in the fields below the vines, the project remains what it has always been: a family farm with a wine label, a closed loop of animal and vine, and a belief that the best wine from Alba la Romaine is the one that needs no explanation beyond the glass and the people sharing it. The story of Jérôme Vigne is the story of a man who spent twenty-three years learning the land, then chose to stay on it — and who proved that the best wine from the Vallis Vinaria is the one that carries the memory of the grandfather, the patience of the sheep, and the zero-sulphur honesty of the family table.
"I intervene according to what the vine asks of me, its needs, always being careful to respect it."
— Jérôme Vigne