Before he made wine, Rémi was a competitive rower. Then he became a horse-ploughman — not as a lifestyle gesture, but as a professional skill, hiring himself and his horses out to top Northern Rhône domaines that needed their steepest parcels worked without machinery. His second horse is Palynka. The domaine name, L'Alezan, means chestnut-colored horse.

Patricia took a different route to the same hillside. She spent seven years in Madrid working in sales, headhunting, and marketing before the pull of rural life and art brought her south. They started in 2013 with a single steep Syrah vineyard, then added a thousand Marsanne vines at Tournon-sur-Rhône. The estate is roughly two hectares. Everything is done by hand, horse, or pickaxe.

Their vineyards sit within the boundaries of the Saint-Joseph appellation. They chose not to join it. The designation would bring visibility and higher prices, but also rules about yields and varieties that would constrain what they want to do — which is ferment spontaneously, add zero sulfur, skip filtration and fining, and bottle what the hillside gives them.

Seventy percent of their vines are under six years old, still finding their depth. Some Syrah dates back to the 1940s. The tension between young and old plays through every vintage.

Their second label, La Tangente, is a négociant line sourcing from fellow natural producers in Gard, Beaujolais, Alsace, and the Luberon. They hold certifications from Demeter, Biodyvin, and Nature et Progrès — a stack of acronyms that boils down to one commitment: nothing added, nothing removed.

One cuvée is called Ho'oponopono — a Hawaiian word that translates roughly as "sorry, forgive, thank you, I love you." Patricia chose it. She said it represents them.