Domaine des Rutissons is set amid the rugged mountains of Isère in the Grésivaudin Valley. Located between Savoie and the Rhône, Isère is one of France’s smallest and most isolated wine regions, with fewer than 3,000 hectoliters produced from the entire vignoble. Laurent Fondimare took over his family domaine of less than a half-hectare in 2010 and was soon joined by Wilfrid Debroize. Between the two of them, they’ve cobbled together about 4 hectares, most of which are planted to the absurdly rare varietals of the valley: Verdesse, Étraire de la d’Huy, Persan, Servanin, and Joubertin, among others. They also work with a few better-known vines like Jacquère, Gamay, and Viognier. The jewel of Rutissons, however, is the Verdesse vine, whose total global cultivation come to just 13 hectares. The viticulture at Rutissons is strictly organic and the domaine is in the process of converting to biodynamics. All work is necessarily by hand, fermentations are all natural and take place mainly in large neutral oak.
