Patrick Jasmin, Cote Rotie 1992

2.0cm Patrick Jasmin farms along the infamous terraces of Côte-Rôtie in the Northern Rhône—hard work that he jokingly calls “la galère,” like a ship’s galley. Growing grapes on some of the most precipitous, terraced parcels of the Rhône can be back-breaking work, but Patrick loves it. Answering only to himself in the midst of celebrated vineyard land, he’s as independent and they come with an insatiable appetite for adventure and risks. (In addition to holding the title of the French National Kart-Cross Champion in 2000, he has developed a new passion for car track racing.) As the fourth generation to farm the family domaine, at first alongside both his father and grandfather and now on his own, he remains grounded in tradition. Patrick and his wife Arlette (the business whiz of the family), tend to eleven parcels of land in eight lieux-dits, totaling a mere five hectares of land. It’s a remarkable amount of work considering the challenging nature of the terrain and its inaccessibilit