Marie & Florian Curtet

A rich legacy

Marie and Florian Curtet both studied in Savoie. She worked for Gilles Berlioz, he for Jacques Maillet. It was the latter's vineyards that they took over between 2015 and 2016, when they decided to go their own way, right on the border between the Jura and Savoie, on the banks of the Rhône.

The vineyards, located in the Chautagne region, are of rare beauty, having been treated with great care by Jacques Maillet, one of the pioneers of organic farming in the region. Land that has not seen the slightest synthetic product for decades, beautiful exposures, preserved terroirs, vines that are more than a hundred years old in some cases... that's all it takes to produce grapes full of life.

The regional grape varieties have pride of place, first on the slopes of the Cellier des Pauvres, soils composed of molasse and molassic sandstone, where Jacquère, Altesse, Savagnin, Molette, or Mondeuse Noire, Grise and Blanche grow, planted in 2021 with a few vines of Gringet, as the Curtet are always looking to experiment and follow their dreams. Here and there, trees are added to the plantations, in search of a richer biodiversity but also as a natural protection against the increasingly frequent high summer heat, from which Altesse in particular tends to suffer. The Gamay is grown in the well-named Vignes du Seigneur, a few kilometres to the south.

The climate in Chautagne benefits from the southern influence of the Rhone Valley and its proximity to Lake Bourget, which in the past earned it the nickname of "Little Provence of Savoy", where one can even find fig and olive trees on the hillsides, with mild winters and hot, sunny summers.

The wines are a concentrate and an extension of this hard work in the vineyard and of a gentle vinification, without intervention, mostly in concrete vats of 20 or 40 hectolitres, supplemented by sandstone or fibre containers, vessels that leave little mark on the wines during maturation, to keep all the freshness and expression of the fruit... crisp, complex, deep juices, wines charged with all that mountain energy.

The 2020 vintage marks the transition of the estate to Vin de France. This is an essential step to give free rein to creativity and to implement innovations and projects in complete autonomy and freedom... to be followed closely!