Descombes Family Wines – a warm welcome
by PM Hall-Jones
Sylvain and Delphine Descombes
When I first met Sylvain and Delphine Descombes at a wine fair in Dijon last year, I was struck by how good their wine was, and second, by our animated discussion about their forthcoming trip, with their four children, to New Zealand, over the Christmas holidays! So it was that the Descombes came to Domaine Thomson on New Year’s Day 2023 and were treated to a tasting conducted by David. The kids, including the Descombes’ twin daughters, enjoyed meeting the cows. They all had a lovely holiday through the North and South Islands.
I then caught up with them, at their family run domaine in January, on a cold day when snow covered the hills and Sylvain had to drive the 4WD into the beautiful village of Jullié to pick me up.
Sylvain and Delphine have some years ago taken over the family domaine founded by Sylvain’s parents, and are enjoying the running of their various vineyards in the Mâconnais, Saint-Véran, Pouilly-Fuissé and the Beaujolais. They are passionate about making good wine and Sylvain has spent a lot of time and energy converting some of the vineyards in the Beaujolais, where the vines have been planted as individual bushes, in what is called the “gobelet” style, into the standard rows of vines trained to grow on wires. Given the hilly terrain such conversion is pretty demanding and is not for the faint hearted.
We went back to see Sylvain and Delphine and the twins this summer. It was hot, the skies were blue and it was high summer – what a difference from the snowy hills of winter!
Vendanges at the Descombes’ vineyard just recently
We are very pleased to share with you the delicious and well made wines of this lovely family run domaine. We have their white wines from the Macon, Saint-Véran, Pouilly-Fuissé, and their red wines from Saint-Amour and Moulin-à-Vent available at the Domaine Thomson Cellar Door. And each time you open a bottle, remember that each bottle has been lovingly labelled for us by the Descombes twins themselves, who wanted to do the labelling as they remembered their fun time at Domaine Thomson. They are truly a family business and we are proud to share their wines with you!
