Jérôme Paris is a native of Quincié-en-Beaujolais on the western edge of the Beaujolais appellation on the road south from the dominating hills of Villié-Morgon. He was born into a family of winemakers, including his father and four brothers, all of whom are involved in wine in some way. The most well-known of the brothers is probably Gilles Paris, who makes similarly brilliant unfiltered, low-to-no sulfite wines found in our portfolio and who introduced us to Jérôme. Jérôme himself took a unique path to winemaking - he was a local semi-professional basketball player, playing on minor league teams in the area before retiring from the sport in 2005. He always maintained one foot in the vines, however, beginning with a degree in oenology in the 90s. After some time training at other wineries, he began to manage almost 7 hectares of vines as a métayer for a local négociant winemaker in the region. At the same time, he had under his care 2 hectares of familial vines which were sold off to the cave-cooperative. 

It was in 2011 that he decided to go “full vigneron”, shedding the duties of métayer and purchasing 5 ha of vines in Régnié. He recovered the familial vines he had been working for the cave-cooperative entirely for his own production. Thanks to his own intuition, the influence of his brother Gilles, and the perspective of brilliant neighbors like Jean-Louis Dutraive, Jérôme undertook natural vinifications for his own wines. He says that vinifying this way allows him to best “preserve the expression of terroir.” Jérôme continues to sell off a portion of his grapes to others and bottles the rest. Since the 2021 vintage, he works under the Terra Vitis certification formed in the Beaujolais to respect sustainable and regenerative agricultural practices. He forgoes all use of pesticides and fungicides, only using minimal herbicides on his steepest, most densely planted slopes. All work in the vineyard is carried out manually. He bottles two cuvées: one from the cru Régnié called “Les Forchets” and another hailing from his inherited vines in the Beaujolais-Villages appellation called “Héritage”, a name which references the transmission of the familial savoir-faire across generations. All vinification is carried out on indigenous yeasts and the wines undergo traditional carbonic maceration. The wines do not see sulfitage at any point in the winemaking process. Depending on the cuvée, élevage is carried out in enameled stainless steel or in used oak barrels. 

One of our favorite wine writers, Aaron Ayscough, once said when profiling his brother Gilles that Jérôme’s “stunning” wines were “worth discussing in a separate post.” To our knowledge, Ayscough never got around to it, but worry not! - you can now actually taste these wines stateside through one of our fine retail or restaurant partners.