Dard & Ribo

René-Jean Dard and François Ribo make some of France’s most thoughtfully constructed, elegantly refined natural wines from their cellar in Mercurol on the river Rhône. They set up together in 1983 in the area where they’re both from (they were born in towns which sit across the river from each other) with 1 hectare of vines, inherited from Dard’s family, that they began farming by hand, without chemicals - a practice uncommon in the region at the time. Today their wonderfully pure wines, made from a bevvy of plots across Crozes-Hermiatge, Saint-Joseph and, of course, the monumental hill of Hermitage itself are some of the world’s most sought-after.