Julien Renard 2022 Two-Pack

Includes one bottle each of:

2022 Julien Renard Riesling
2022 Julien Renard Chardonnay

This is only our third Julien Renard offer; it's the first time we have been able to offer his Chardonnay (more about this project below).

Farming slightly more than one hectare in the fortress-like terraces of the Terrassen-Mosel (photographed above), this is one of the smallest estates we work with.

We first introduced Julien's wines to the U.S. with offer 074 in 2023. In a very short time, these wines of ruthless exactitude have made an impact. 

In certain circles Julien's wines are among the most talked-about in Germany, and beyond (we first tasted them in Paris). When we first reached out in the summer of 2020, Julien politely told us that not only was his current vintage sold out, but the vintage still in barrel that would not be released for another year was also sold out. 

All this to say: Today we have only a few two-packs of these wines to offer. Although Julien Renard is still only being introduced to the U.S. - we expect a strong response. 

If there are any precedents to what Julien Renard is doing, they would have to be the rapier-like wines of Stefan Vetter or Jonas Dostert. Renard is certainly a part of the "new Moselle," a group of growers that includes Jakob Tennstedt, Philip Lardot and Wolfram Stempel to name only the most well-known.

These are boundary-pushing wines, surreal combinations of extreme mineral, precision, clarity, luminosity, acidity, energy. They reference Chablis and the Savoie as much as they reference the Mosel, or even Germany. 

Yet they do this in the most petite and exacting of ways - seemingly dissecting wine to the sub-atomic level. 

Renard's signature is wines that are dense and compact, yet they have so much presence, so many layers, so many unique angles and crevices. They are glossy and porcelain-smooth, exquisitely balanced and seamless; they are woven by gossamer threads of citrus oil, mint and salt.

There is a magical play of reduction and oxidation in these wines (in this manner they are very similar to the wines of Jonas Dostert). The extreme inward-looking force of the wines (early picking, high acidity) is pulled outward and sheened into a satiny texture by the extended elevage, the fine lees polishing these wines into ultra-fine textures. Wines like this make it seem as if the Mosel and Rheinhessen and the Jura shared an ancient ancestor.

The 2022 Riesling is bone dry and is just striking in its delineation. Even in the warmer 2022 vintage, the wine is tensile and cut. This is Renard's signature bottling, the heart of the estate. 

The Chardonnay is something of a rarity, a special project at Renard. The fruit is sourced in the Rheinhessen from Renard's friend Christopher Barth. The fruit, however, is vinified by Renard in his style and cellar. Which is to say all direct-press (no maceration), a long aging on the fine lees in a young Tonneau and bottling unfiltered and unfined. It is pure elegance, expansive yet linear - herbal and transparent.

Both wines are singular and showcase Renard's amazing ability to craft wines of a very specific identity. These wines are quickly gaining the following here that they already have in Europe - do not miss.

Stephen and Robert

A short Julien Renard Biography
Julien Renard was born to a French father and German mother. Growing up just north of Cologne, Julien's first love was the theatre. However, after some years, needing a break and beginning to get very into the natural wine scene, Julien decided to go and work for a winemaker for three weeks. It was devastatingly hard work; he loved it. For the first time in many years, he slept soundly through the night. That was that. Knowing nothing about German wine, he bought a number of mixed cases and, focusing on the "elite" VDP growers, reached out to a number of them. Only one estate, Heymann-Löwenstein in the village of Winningen in the Lower Mosel, emailed back. This was his introduction to the Mosel; it was a brutal introduction. Julien and I have, by this point, talked for hours and while I don't want to go into it too deeply, there is a connection between the severity of the landscape here, the harshness and physical exhaustion of the work, and the way this affects your mental perspective. Julien said something like: "Looking at these vineyards; at first I was afraid - and it was months and months of pain. But you have to climb the vineyards, you have to push, and you have to climb up within yourself as well."

Julien worked with Löwenstein for a number of years before finding in 2017 a tiny, 0.7 hectare parcel that a grower said he could work. From the beginning, he knew roughly how he wanted to work. All the parcels are worked by hand and Julien has a viticultural practice that is organic, yet the terraces are sprayed mostly by helicopter, so the estate is not certified organic. The grapes are carefully harvested in small bins and are brought to the winery (a small cellar in Winningen) to be foot-stomped in the bins and then pressed slowly with a basket press. The process can take all night. Each parcel goes into its own barrel, which is incredibly important for Julien as he is still learning his sites. The wines are then put into a selection of barrels, from used barriques to 500 liter barrels, and aged for up to two years. Only in the context of the Mosel would his approach be seen as "natural." As Philip Lardot has said in regards to his process, which is similar in the length of élevage and allowing the wines to go through malolactic: "I'm just making white wine." Julien's wines are bottled with lower levels of sulfur; all the information is provided on the back label.

This offer is now closed. If you need help finding the wines please email orders@sourcematerialwine.com.