Domaine Couturier is led by the legendary Marcel Couturier, who comes from a long line of vignerons in the southern Mâconnais, in conjunction with his daughter Cladie and son Auxence. The winery is located in the commune of Fuissé, overlooking the villages of Loché, Mâcon, and the great plain of Bresse. Their vineyards are located within a fault zone, meaning several different soil types exist close to one another within a small area. The domaine is just one of four producers who are estate bottling in Mâcon-Loché. In total, they farm 11 hectares of chardonnay vineyards in multiple appellations. Most of their vines are quite old, with many parcels exceeding 70 years of age and their “young” vines averaging 30-40 years old.

Farming is meticulous at Domaine Couturier, employing only certified organic and biodynamic methods. They work soils with ground cover between rows to regenerate the hard, poor clay soils, which greatly benefit from the aeration and the introduction of native organic materials.

Domaine Couturier owns 0.5ha in the Premier Cru Clos Reyssié vineyard in the village of Chaintré, one of four villages that comprise Pouilly-Fuissé. The Couturier family has an intimate relationship with this vineyard, beginning with Marcel’s great-grandfather drawing the map for the original boundaries before they were revised in 2020. Clos Reyssié is a large lieu-dit of about eight hectares within Pouilly-Fuissé. East-facing, on a gently sloping hillside that is exposed to the rising sun, Clos Reyssié has deep, clay-rich soil with more rocks at the top of the slope. Domaine Couturier is one of just 12 producers who work parcels in the vineyard; their parcel lies towards the lower part of the slope, which is beneficial as many of the heavier clay elements get washed down due to erosion. The eastern-facing aspect of the slope, along with the cooling influence of the clay, combine to add a certain freshness, yielding wines that are rich and structured without being heavy or aromatically blowsy.

Their Clos Reyssié parcel in Chaintré is now combined with the lieu-dit Les Scellés in Fuissé, to produce their cuvée Pouilly-Fuissé ‘Clos Scellés’ bottling. Despite the history of the Couturier family roots in Clos Reyssié, they lost the right to label their bottles as such when the boundaries for Clos Reyssié were redrawn in 2020 during Pouilly-Fuissé’s bid for Premier Cru status (which it received). Clos Scellés, nevertheless, is an even greater wine thanks to the blending of the two complementary lieux-dits, with vines between 60-90 years old. Couturier’s grand, elegant Pouilly-Fuissé ‘Clos Scellés’ is a direct reflection of the combination of fruit from the deep, clay-rich soil of Clos Reyssié and the shales of Les Scellés.

At harvest, whole bunches are hand-picked, and once the bunches are pressed, they allow the must settles for up to two days. No sulfur is added to the bunches when they arrive in the winery, and the resulting wild-yeast fermentations are long and cool. Both alcoholic and malolactic fermentations occur naturally in French Burgundy barrels. Some of the gross lees are retained during fermentation, resulting in a bit of skin contact during both fermentation and élevage. Once the must is in the barrel, it sits mostly untouched until bottling. The wines age in the same barrels without bâtonnage. The wine spends a total of 11 months in its fermentation barrel and is racked only once. Depending on the vintage, only a light bentonite fining and a minimal amount of sulfur dioxide is added before bottling.

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