Loire, France

Stéphane is by no means a classic career changer but after having met the Foucault family early on in his (wine) life he decided to quit his day job and focus on viticulture. Later he was working side by side with none other than Antoine Foucault of Domaine Collier — a friend and neighbour that he often relates to to this day.

Today Stéphane lives a humble life in the village of Saint-Cyr-en-Bourg, a stone throw away from Chacé and Saumur where some of the Loire’s best appellations for Chenin Blanc and Cabernet Franc lie. Most of his vineyards are however more centred around the sections of Anjou Noir (he took over a little over 3ha in Saint-Georges-sur-Layon) where the soils are more characterised by schist, clay and in particular coal and granite for his red plots.

In the cellar (a beautiful underground tuffeau cave) Stéphane uses a hands-off approach trying to use gravity as much as he can as well as using little to no extraction when it comes to macerating his whites and reds.

Both his red L’Envolée (blend of Grolleau Gris and Noir) as well as the white ‘L’Entreintes’ (Grolleau Gris) are impressive wines showing how grown up and serious these underrated varieties can be.

‘Carbone’ and ‘Les Mines’ (both Cabernet Franc) as well as ‘Les Faraunières’ (Chenin Blanc) are his most thought-provoking wines spending a minimum of 18 months in barrel before usually spending another year in bottle before release.

Stéphane’s wines have long been hidden below the surface but his list of advocates around the world reads like the who is who of the world wine from Pascaline Lepeltier in New York to Marco Pelletier in Paris.