Domaine de Bonserine

The estate is in Ampuis, in the heart of Côte-Rôtie, and was founded in 1961; it grew and was modernised in the nineties. It farms eleven hectares in Côte-Rôtie and one in Condrieu, spread across lieux-dits on both slopes: Côte-Blonde, Côte-Brune, La Viallière, Les Moutonnes, Leyat, Le Champin, Fongeant and Planèze.

The vineyard is planted mainly with old Syrah that in Côte-Rôtie they call serine — small, loose bunches — the same word that appears in the estate's name. The Côte-Rôtie parcels also carry around 3% Viognier.

In 2006 Marcel Guigal bought it, and the estate kept its autonomy over how its wines are made and sold. Stéphane Carrel is the house winemaker.

La Viallière is a one-hectare parcel in the northern part of the appellation, on the Côte Brune, on heavily decomposed mica schist and planted in 1997. It is made from 95% serine and 5% Viognier co-fermented, as the appellation's tradition requires, with 5% whole stems and native yeasts: three weeks of maceration and twenty-four months in new 640-litre demi-muids, for about 5,000 bottles. The cellar sits at number 2, chemin de la Viallière, the lane of that same vineyard.