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.

Couturier’s Saint-Véran ‘La Cour des Bois’ is an electric, stunning wine made with fruit from 70-to-80 year-old vines at the very southern end of the appellation, near the village of Chânes in Saint-Véran. This site is unusual for the southern Mâconnais, being the remnants of a ridge of an ancient riverbed. La Cour des Bois is a small plateau with ancient alluvial soil and rolled galets. These soils are acidic, sandy loam with a very acidic clay base. This particular terroir gives the wine an open, airy, and fresh character reminiscent of great Chablis.

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 small amount of skin contact during both fermentation and élevage. Once the must is in the barrel, it is basically left alone from that point until they are bottled. The wines age in the same barrels without bâtonnage, spending a total of 11 months in the fermentation barrel and are racked only once prior to bottling. Depending on the vintage, only a light bentonite fining and the minimal amount of sulfur dioxide is added before bottling.

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