Let's go Behind the Bottle with  

Lionel Faury of Domaine Lionel Faury

and meet the maker who crafts these classic Northern Rhone wines capturing their timeless rustic elegance.

Dating back to 1950, Lionel’s grandfather Jean Faury settled in the hamlet of Ribaudy, on the heights of the village of Chavanay. After the second WW, he began growing fruit trees, vines and raising animals. His son, Philippe succeeded his father in 1979 investing his energies in the vineyards and wine and abandoned the fruit trees. Winemaking facilities and storage were built and the Faury label began.

At the young age of 23, enters the third generation, Philippe’s son Lionel, who took over management of the estate learning from his father the art of winegrowing. In 2006 the Faury label became definitively Lionel’s expression, crafting wines that that were finer and even more terroir driven than before. The Faury vines with a favourable southern exposure receiving optimal sunshine and large diurnal temperature swings, are located on steep terraces across some of the Northern Rhones best appellations. Lionel also farms vines on the plateau just above these appellations.

“Preserving freshness and acidity in the face of warmer vintages is one of his primary goals, and he achieves this masterfully by keeping more leaves on the vines—thereby providing more shade to the grapes—as well as pursuing shorter macerations and more whole-cluster fermentation than the domaine used to. He’s also thinking about how to retain more moisture and less heat in his soils.” KLWM

The Faury Way  

“Lionel de-stems about 70% of his grapes, on average, softly crushing them using a pneumatic press and fermenting the juice using temperature control to ensure freshness and liveliness in finished wine. " 
"While the skins and wine remain in contact during fermentation the “pigeage” (punching down of the cap of skins that rises to the top of the tank) isn’t done by mechanical means, but by foot!" 
"Respecting the delicate nature of the wine is top of mind and, with that intention, Faury does not use new oak- as he feels it would overpower the delicate nuances of his wines.  Though the wines do spend time in barrels, he prefers used barrels of varying sizes."
"They bottle their wines unfined and only lightly filtered.”


Little Did You Know...   
“When you first meet Lionel Faury, it’s easy to mistake him for a gentle giant. At six foot five, with a linebacker’s frame, he is soft-spoken, humble, and good-humored. Lionel’s modesty and affability, however, belie the intensity he brings to the job—and sport—he loves.” KLWM With a style that is uniquely Lionel’s, he “drives a Ford Ranger, has an eyebrow piercing, and is a world-champion water jouster.” Madison H Brown “Two years ago, he won his tenth Joutes Nautiques, the French championship of water jousting (Google it!). Lionel is equally, if not more, successful in his day job as one of the northern Rhône’s great vignerons. What links the two? ‘Passion,’ he replied when he visited [KLWM in] Berkeley in January 2020.” KLWM “On his off days you’ll find him out grilling by the pool. He’s effortlessly cool and happens to be cooking up some of the hottest wines in the northern Rhône. Despite his brawny veneer, Lionel prefers to make supple reds with soft tannin and ample freshness.” Madison H. Brown


The New Label of Faury

 To remove confusion and create harmony Lionel has unified the Faury label globally. Previously though the same wine, the wines bottled for his U.S. importer, Kermit Lynch Wine Merchant, carried a different label than other markets. Lionel has brought uniformity back to his wines, which now all carry the same label world-wide. The wines have not changed, just the label, hopefully removing confusion and syncing recognition of his craft.