Jacques Grange

The Climb

University of Dijon provided the technical base for Jacques Grange’s work: a grounding in method, measurement and the cellar decisions that shape a wine before it is ever poured. Since 1997, Jacques Grange has been winemaker of Delas Freres, a long-running appointment that anchors his career in the Northern Rhône. The role is defined by slope, season and site, with the cellar acting less as a place of intervention than as a place of reading what the vineyard has already set in motion.

Today

The defining feature of that post is continuity. In the Northern Rhône, appellations carry weight because they ask for exacting work, not because they can be treated the same way. Syrah and Viognier demand alertness; steep ground requires respect; élevage calls for judgment and patience rather than display. That approach is audible in the wines themselves. Jacques Grange works in a register where wine does not need to announce itself quickly. Instead, it settles, gains composure and reveals structure over time. “But now the middles have filled in, the tannins have gone into the wine and the acidity is along the edges.” The line is practical, not decorative: it describes balance, texture and the internal build of a wine moving from hardness toward integration.

Signature

Jacques’s signature wines include La Landonne Delas Côte Rotie 2012, Les Bessards Delas Hermitage 2012, La Galopine Delas Condrieu 2014, and Clos Boucher Delas Condrieu 2013. Read together, they show a winemaker working across distinct expressions of the Northern Rhône while keeping the same controlled hand on each bottling.

In Their Words “The wines were tough right after the vinification—tight, hard. But now the middles have filled in, the tannins have gone into the wine and the acidity is along the edges.”

Recognition

Recognition here is measured through duration, place and the wines rather than through a separate list of prizes. The work spans Hermitage, Condrieu, Crozes-Hermitage, Côte-Rôtie and Saint-Joseph, each appellation asking for a different reading of balance, tension and timing. The record is practical, and the wines are the proof.