Stéphane Morin spent years behind a camera in Argelès-sur-Mer before trading photography for the vine. In 2005 he sold his studio, enrolled at the wine school in Rivesaltes, and planted his future in the far south of France. He named the estate Léonine by borrowing syllables from his children's first names.
Backstory
Founded in 2005, Domaine Léonine grew out of Morin's encounter with Jean-François Nicq of Domaine des Foulards Rouges, who introduced him to natural wine. Morin built the domaine parcel by parcel, taking on vines from an older grower who had never used chemical herbicides. Today he works alongside his apprentice Jordan Le Guyader, passing on what he has learned.
The Region
The estate sits at Saint-André, in the foothills of the Albères mountains in the Pyrénées-Orientales. It spans roughly a dozen hectares across several communes in this warm, dry corner of Roussillon, where the Mediterranean and the mountains meet.
Vineyards and Farming
Morin farms organically. He treats only with sulfur, copper, and plant preparations such as nettle and horsetail. He leaves the rows largely unweeded, encouraging the vines to root deeper and draw more minerality from the soil.
Winemaking
In the cellar Morin works with as little between grape and glass as possible. Fermentations are spontaneous with indigenous yeasts. Carbonic maceration is central to his style: whole clusters rest in vats without oxygen for several days, fermentation starting inside the berries before the wine is pressed and moved to barrel. He adds nothing, fines nothing, and filters nothing. All movement in the cellar is done by gravity, and the reds age in Burgundian barrels.
The Wines
The result is a range of digestible, terroir-driven wines. Cuvées such as Fond de Tiroir show red and black fruit with gentle roasted notes, the kind of fluid, lacy reds Morin describes as an infusion of grapes.
