Pépin Vin de France Rouge

Pépin Rouge is an original and captivating cuvée, where the richness of Grenache, Carignan, Cinsault and Syrah blends with the aromatic freshness of Muscat of Alexandria. The nose reveals aromas of ripe red fruits, black cherry, pepper and an elegant floral touch. The palate is full and generous with black and red fruits complemented by notes of humus and moss, like a walk in the forest. It's juicy and spicy, with bright fruit, supple tannins and a lovely, lingering, spicy finish.

Pépin is a new collaborative winery, formed by Jean and Pierre Dietrich of esteemed Domaine Archilée in Scherwiller, Alsace. The bottles have no vintage. They come in lots — Blanc, Rouge, Orange, Rosé, Pét-Nat — and when one lot runs out, the next one picks up where it left off. There are no grand cru designations, no single-vineyard bottlings, no back labels explaining the terroir in three languages. Pierre Dietrich designed it that way.

Pierre and his brother Jean run Domaine Achillée, their family's eighteen-hectare biodynamic estate in Scherwiller. By 2021, they were running out of wine. Friends who grew grapes kept asking for help making theirs. Rather than simply buy fruit and bottle it, Pierre built something stranger — a collective of fifteen independent organic growers across Alsace, with partner vineyards in Spain and Italy, all channeled through a single brand that deliberately strips away the markers that natural wine usually trades on.

No winemaker portraits on the website. No harvest diaries. No stories about the grandfather who planted the vines. Just wine in a bottle with a clean label and a price that doesn't require a second opinion.

The winemaking follows the same principles as Achillée: native yeasts, no additives during fermentation, no filtration, no fining, zero or negligible sulfur at bottling. The difference is intent. Achillée is terroir-specific, parcel-driven, patient. Pépin is designed to move — to be the bottle someone grabs on a Tuesday without studying the back label first.

Just like the Achillée wines, Pépin wines are natural, farmed organically, harvested by hand, fermented naturally with indigenous yeasts and vinified wth no additives. The group works with local farmers in Alsace, with a philosophy of making vibrant and affordable natural wines while fairly compensating the growers. Thus, the blends and grape varieties may change year by year.

The label art is designed by the Michel Tolmer, an artist well-known in the natural wine world.