A native of the Loire Valley in France, J-L Groux studied winemaking both at the College de Beaune in Burgundy and at the University of Bordeaux. He subsequently traveled the globe to learn more about the world’s wine regions and styles of winemaking – a journey that eventually brought him to the Niagara region in the early 1980s.
Drawn to the ideal, natural grape-growing climate of the Niagara Peninsula and intrigued by how different it was from the vineyards in the Loire Valley, J-L Groux joined Hillebrand Estates in 1989.
At Hillebrand, Groux seized the opportunity to experiment with grape varieties, winemaking techniques and wine growing practices within the rebirth of the Canadian wine industry.
In 2004, J-L joined Stratus Vineyard’s, Niagara’s ultra-premium and world’s first fully LEED® certified winery, as the Director of Winemaking. At Stratus, J-L is renowned for his passion for creating distinctive wines based on the principle of assemblage – the art of crafting several different grape varieties to produce a wine that is the most complex expression of the vineyard’s terroir. The wines of Stratus have set the highest standard for quality and continue to impress both critics and consumers alike.
J-L lives in Niagara-on-the-Lake with his wife Béatrice and their two children, Gaëlle and Corwan.