2010 Saint-Joseph Tildé

Villa, who is a Rhone Valley native, also has roots in Burgundy, having worked at Clos de Tart beginning in 1992, then in Beaujolais and for three years at Domaine de la Vougeraie with Pascal Marchand.In 2003 he came home to become a partner and take the winemaking reins at Vins de Vienne, where he remained until 2009.Since setting up his own small domaine, which includes a new cellar in the hills just outside Chavannay, he has also become a partner in a new Burgundy negociant with Olivier Decelle, the owner of Mas Amiel, in Maury.Only five wines are made right now but the new cellar will allow him to expand production, "with an obvious limit."The wines tend to be fruity but restrained, with an emphasis on "making each wine have a reason to stand by itself and not be blended into an appellation wine," he said.Villa told me that he likes to find a "minerality that borders on salinity" in wines, and that his goal is to "try to find the more elegant aspects of a vintage and work from there.Fruit is usually pretty easy but getting and keeping finesse at the same time is the hard work."