Les Valseuses

Cadê meu Carnaval

Born in Angers, in the Loire region, Antoine Le Courrt-Chedevergne quickly developed a passion for the world of wine, as his grandmother had a few vineyards in Poitou.

Antoine took his first steps in 2012 at Pithon-Paillé in his native Loire. His studies took him to Corsica, to Sébastien Poly's domaine U Stiliccionu, then to Château Latour in Bordeaux, where he was in charge of the 20 hectares of biodynamic test plots, before spending five months in the cellar, to "see what a big estate is like". He then travelled to New Zealand with Felton Road and Maude Wine, California and Oregon with Rajat Parr, Australia with James Erskine of Jauma before returning to France, where he spent a few months with Alice Bouvot at L'Octavin.

In January 2017, Antoine crossed the Atlantic again, heading for Chile for a first experience of a few months with Louis-Antoine Luyt before touring Bolivia and Argentina with his backpack to land in Brazil, in São Paulo. From chance encounters, he started to brew craft beer in the middle of the forest on the outskirts of the city, this is the Going Wild Project adventure.

Brazil is also where he met Julia Naar, a French translator from Rio de Janeiro. It was love at first sight and the couple decided to return to the Jura region. In 2018, Antoine joined Alice Bouvot who helped him find his first grapes and make his first wines, and between trips back and forth from Arbois to Rio de Janeiro, Les Valseuses became a reality.

In February 2019, Antoine and Julia fell in love with an 18th century winegrower's house in Planches-près-Arbois. A huge vaulted cellar, volumes allowing them to realize all their dreams, their installation takes a decisive turn. The couple opened a bed and breakfast, vinified their second vintage in the cellars of their house in 2019 and planted their first vines on the hillsides of the tiny village in the autumn of 2021.

While waiting for their first harvest in 3 or 4 years, Antoine harvests everything he makes himself, with his friends, and only buys grapes from organic, biodynamic or in-conversion vineyards, grown without any paraffin powder. Jura grapes such as Poulsard, Savagnin or Trousseau, but also Riesling from Alsace, Molette from Bugey or grapes from the South...

In the cellar, the macerations are long and gentle, the interventions minimal, and obviously without any additives or added sulphites. Wines that tell stories, just like Julia and Antoine, open and touching, wines of emotion.

Each cuvée is named after a piece of music that the couple is particularly fond of, Serge Gainsbourg, Joy Division, Geraldo Azevedo or Francis Bebey... influences that recall Antoine's travels and his colourful career. The magnificent labels are the work of photographer Clément Deuve and Brazilian artist Clarisse Romeiro.