Éric Texier spent over a decade as a nuclear engineer before deciding he wanted something different. Born in Bordeaux and based near Lyon since 1979, he began teaching himself about wine in the early 1990s, visiting traditional producers and reading widely. In 1993 he interned at Guffens in Burgundy, and by 1995 he had produced his first wines. Over the following years he steadily built one of the northern Rhône's most important natural wine estates.
Backstory
Texier came to winemaking without family connections to the land. His first focus was the Brézème appellation, a small and largely forgotten enclave on the Rhône's left bank with rare limestone soils. He also began working in Saint-Julien-en-Saint-Alban, another obscure right-bank zone on granite. By restoring both appellations to quality, he helped establish a new reference point for what the northern Rhône could express outside its famous names. His base is a 16th-century underground cellar in Charnay-en-Beaujolais, north of Lyon.
The Region
The northern Rhône Valley stretches from Vienne south toward Valence, encompassing celebrated appellations like Côte-Rôtie and Cornas as well as smaller, overlooked zones. Texier's primary holdings sit in Brézème, on a rare limestone hill on the left bank, and in Saint-Julien-en-Saint-Alban, on granite slopes on the right bank. He also sources fruit from Côte-Rôtie and Châteauneuf-du-Pape for selected cuvées.
Vineyards and Farming
Texier owns 9.8 hectares plus purchased fruit. At Brézème he has 4.3 hectares planted to Syrah and Roussanne on limestone. At Saint-Julien-en-Saint-Alban, 5.5 hectares carry Syrah, Grenache, Cinsault, Clairette, and Roussanne on granite. He has farmed organically since the beginning, certified through Ecocert, and applies principles from Fukuoka and permaculture: cover crops, microbiological soil management, minimal copper and sulfur use. He does not plow.
Winemaking
All fermentations use native yeasts. Reds receive whole-cluster fermentation with short macerations of five to ten days. Whites undergo whole-cluster pressing and extended lees aging. Everything ages in cement tanks or old wood with no new oak. Sulfur is used only at bottling and in minimal quantities. Texier describes his goal as returning to how wine was made before the industrialization of food production. He experiments continuously, grafting new varieties and questioning standard practices.
The Wines
The range includes the flagship Chat Fou Côtes-du-Rhône, a widely available cuvée that has become a benchmark for the style, alongside more site-specific Brézème reds and whites and cuvées from Saint-Julien-en-Saint-Alban. Laurence Texier, his wife, collaborates on the estate. The wines are distributed internationally by Louis/Dressner in the United States and reach markets across Europe and Asia.
