Camille Mélinand comes from a family of winegrowers in Fleurie, the center of the northernmost section of Beaujolais. He is a young cult producer handcrafting small amounts of ultra-elegant and delicious Cru Beaujolais from estate vineyards utilizing natural farming and production methods. Presently, Camille farms two vineyards he owns in Fleurie and Chiroubles, vinifying the wines in traditional large foudres at his family’s cellar in Fleurie, Domaine de Marrans, where he works with his brother Mathieu to make the domaine wine. 

In Chiroubles, he farms the highest Cru in Beaujolais at 400m, a 1ha lieu-dit called Tempéré, which is located on a very steep south-facing slope of 35% grade. To work the soil, he has to utilize cables and winches for plowing. It is painful, manual work, but Camille feels the results in the vineyard are worth the massive effort. The vineyard is planted to 50-year-old, gobelet-trained gamay vines in pink granite.

Vinification – Whole bunches are handpicked in small crates and selected in the vineyard. A very gentle and slow pressing follows 15 days of whole-cluster carbonic maceration. The must is transferred into temperature-controlled cement tanks, where spontaneous alcoholic fermentation occurs with native yeasts. After racking, the wine spends twelve months in foudres before being bottled unfined and unfiltered. Sulfur is not used in the vinification process.

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