The small Suzuki 4×4 came to an abrupt stop and we teetered at the top of a steep path in lieu-dit ‘Les Rochains’, high in the hills of Côte-Rôtie. It had been raining all day and the ground was a slick of slippery brown mud. The Rhône was flowing grey in the valley far below us. Léa Bonnefond flicked a button on the dashboard and the car switched to four-wheel drive. She pushed the accelerator, and down we went.
The cover of my notebook still displays my fingernail marks, but Bonnefond was unconcerned – just another day in the vines for this 26-year-old, who grew up next to the winery in the tiny hamlet of Mornas.