Natural Wine Producers: Working With Nature

Former geologist Marc Houtin founded La Grange aux Belles in Anjou in 2004, and together with partners Julien Bresteau and Gérald Peau, now farms fifteen organic hectares of black schist to make some of the Loire's most vital natural wines.

A new-wave Anjou vigneron working barely two hectares, Fabrice Chaillou devotes almost everything to Chenin Blanc, farmed and vinified as naturally as possible.

Founded in Cape Town in 2020 by Hardy McQueen, Nice Bev Co. is a proudly Black-owned negociant giving South Africa's most talented emerging winemakers a platform, led by 2024 Diners Club Winemaker of the Year Kiara Scott-Farmer.

Baptiste Cousin farms 4.5 hectares in Anjou with horses and old-vine intuition, making zero-sulfur natural wines that carry the spirit of his father Olivier Cousin's legendary natural-wine legacy into a new generation.

After decades guiding Anjou growers into organics, oenologist Clément Baraut set up his own tiny Savennières domaine, coaxing additive-free Chenin from schist and volcanic rock.

Quentin Bourse farms 12 biodynamic hectares in Azay-le-Rideau with an intensity that belies his modest output, coaxing Chenin Blanc, Grolleau, and Gamay from clay-silica soils into some of the Loire's most honest and compelling natural wines.

Guillaume Reynouard's biodynamic estate in Le Puy-Notre-Dame brings 17th-century Saumur terroir to life through Cabernet Franc, Chenin Blanc, and rare Pineau d'Aunis with zero added sulfur.

Pascal Janvier tends nine hectares of Chenin Blanc and Pineau d'Aunis across 66 parcels in Jasnières and Coteaux du Loir, farming sustainably to produce the most mineral, flinty expressions of these little-known Loire appellations.

François Maudet and Romain Jos craft transparent, mineral-driven natural wines from 2.7 hectares of slate-rich Anjou vineyards, guided by friendship and a shared belief that the best wine requires as little interference as possible.

Founded in 1972 by Aimé and Véronique Guibert near Aniane, Mas de Daumas Gassac built its legend on red glacial soils, a Bordeaux-trained palate, and wild-fermented blends of over 50 grape varieties that GaultMillau called the 'Lafite Rothschild of the Languedoc.'

Le Facteur is the playful natural side of Mathieu Cosme's Vouvray estate, its cuvees named for the bicycle-riding postmen once toasted with a glass of Chenin.

A revered Loire couple farming 30 hectares of old-vine Chenin Blanc biodynamically across Montlouis and Vouvray, the Chidaines have become a benchmark for finesse and purity in Touraine white wine.