Natural Wine Producers: Working With Nature

Simon Busser farms 5 hectares of Cot, Merlot, and Chenin Blanc along the Lot river near Cahors using horse-drawn plowing and zero additives, a quiet pillar of France's radical natural wine community.

A son of Auvergne dairy farmers who learned natural winemaking under Dominique Derain and now runs both Domaine Sextant and the historic Domaine Derain in Burgundy.

A tiny, horse-ploughed Anjou estate where Adrien de Mello farms schist vineyards biodynamically and makes wild-fermented natural wines with no added inputs.

Marie-Pierre and Eric Plumet farm 38 biodynamic hectares on the Massif d'Uchaux plateau in the southern Rhône, the first estate certified by Demeter in the region and still one of the few in the entire Vaucluse.

A benchmark Muscadet estate built parcel by parcel by Marc Ollivier and now led by Remi Branger and Gwenaelle Croix, with an unusually high share of cru vineyards.

Guilhem Dardé and his family have farmed the volcanic and Permian red soils beside Lac du Salagou since 1993, making certified-organic Terrasses du Larzac wines of singular geological character from one of the Languedoc's most dramatic landscapes.

Eighth-generation Vincent Alexis turned a bulk Bergerac estate biodynamic, replanting forgotten local grapes and making dry, sweet and skin-contact wines.

An eighth-generation Saumur vigneron and a former professional dancer farm under four hectares organically, aging Cabernet Franc and Chenin in cellars carved straight into the region's tuffeau limestone.

Louis Terral is the only still-wine producer in the village of Mérignat, farming 2.2 biodynamic hectares of Gamay and Chardonnay in the mountains of Bugey with a pickaxe, no inputs, and no sulfur additions whatsoever.

Harry and Céline Gozlan, with winemaker Maxime Gamard, farm 31 organic hectares on a high-altitude Provence plateau above Jouques, crafting mineral, fruit-forward wines that stand apart from the region's mainstream rosé.

Former pharmaceutical researcher Ludovic Chanson traded his lab coat for a vineyard in 2009 and now farms 6.5 hectares of certified-organic Chenin Blanc in Montlouis-sur-Loire with minimal intervention.

Fabien Jouves farms 20 biodynamic hectares on the limestone heights of Cahors, producing Malbec-driven natural wines of remarkable freshness and precision that have made him one of southwest France's most exciting young voices.