Winemaker Sylvain Gauthier is one artisan who already has found more than solid footing here in the Saint-Joseph appellation. He started his micro-domaine in 2007, the name “pierres séches” inspired by the many hand-built stone walls that support vineyard terraces in the region.
The village of Chitry is starting to make waves among the somm and restaurant set, as a source of top-notch Burgundian Chardonnay and Pinot Noir, and the name on everyone’s lips is Olivier Morin. His are wines that transcend appellation with their resonant flavors and stunning complexity, and what’s more, they offer outstanding value.
With Richard Petit’s attention to detail in the fields and Véronique Bajan’s tasting prowess in the cellar, the small-batch, grand cru wines of Petit & Bajan are very much the voice of Champagne’s new generation. Like their neighbor and mentor in Avize, Anselme Selosse, Richard and Véronique start by harvesting perfectly ripe grapes. At every step in the winemaking process, no detail is too small to be further perfected.
From a very early age, Francis Orban knew he’d follow in the footsteps of his father and grandfather before him. Indeed, at the ripe age of 19 he joined the family domaine, imbued with their generations-long passion for making pure Pinot Meunier wines. Here on the banks of the Marne, Pinot Meunier has pride of place; nearly 90% of the family’s vineyards are dedicated to this singular grape.
The Cherrier family has been a trusted name in Sancerre since the late 1800s. Here in Chaudoux, north of the village of Sancerre, Sauvignon Blanc is equally in its element: soils are a refined mix of flint and chalk, a terroir marriage that makes the best Sancerre so vibrant.
Knocking on the family’s weather-beaten cellar door, steps from the village center, reveals a practice that has not changed with time. Nicolas treads his organically raised grapes by foot, and presses them in an old-fashioned basket press—Cornas tradition is alive and well at Dumien-Serette.
Located between Angers and Nantes, this family-run estate in the petite village of La Pommeraye enjoys a particularly warm microclimate, which helps to push grapes to perfect ripeness, even in cooler years. This family estate on the banks of the Loire River was founded in 1994, bringing together three generations of “savoir faire” and honoring Anjou’s native grapes.
Representing the third generation of her family to have answered the siren call of northern Rhône Syrah, Christelle Betton’s vision is one of pure and refined fruit, inspired by the cool northern mistral winds and stony personality of her family’s vineyards in La Roche de Glun.
From the heady perfume of pine trees in the heat of the summer to the cry of seabirds that remind that the Camargue delta is just minutes away, Domaine de Moulines embodies the soul and seduction of France’s winemaking south. This generations-old family estate was an abbey in the Middle Ages.
Raised biodynamically, with yields that often dip lower than the lowest at Yquem, Grande Maison offers an elegant expression of Monbazillac botrytized wines. All of the estate’s vineyards surround the “grande maison,” a fortified manor house originally built in the thirteenth century.