Bruno Duchêne was a wild mushroom distributor in the Loire Valley and Burgundy before developing an interest in winemaking. His wines come from vineyards that are notoriously challenging, so much so that several of them had been previously abandoned – they’re low-yielding and difficult to work with machinery. He works one parcel by horse, and in another allows flowers and grass to grow between the vines. Bruno uses organic practices and minimal sulfur additions – only adding just before bottling, if at all. La Porte Saint Jean is the project of Loire native Sylvain Dittière and Pauline Foucault. Sylvain kicked things off with an internship at Château Yvonne before stints with the greats. Gérard Gauby, Thierry Germain, Marc Tempé, and Clos Rougeard (where he met Antoine Foucault). He began farming his own vines in 2010 and now works 8 hectares.


Each vineyard has its own microbial fingerprint and Sylvain believes that’s what gives each wine its unique character. To preserve this, he avoids additions, instead relying on time to stabilise the wines naturally. Sulphur is used only in tiny doses at bottling (max 30ppm). He figures out how much by doing bottle trials and leaving them outside for 48 hours to see how quickly they oxidise.


Reds are always destemmed and softly macerated in concrete. He’s experimented with whole bunch but found the stems never ripen alongside the grapes in Franc, leading to bitter, green, astringent wines. Whites are direct pressed, then slowly aged untouched in serious barrels, Clos Rougeard cast-offs lol.

However, it’s those Loire troglodyte caves that is the true secret to such pure, pulsating expressions of place. The super stable temps allow for long, slow ferments and very gentle aging. Things can come together harmoniously at their own precious pace. Time is allowed to do its magical thing, fully undisturbed.