Ask Andy about this wine

France / Rhone

Unique, unconventional, curious about everything, Michel Chapoutier’s mind has never been static. Michel is a wine-lover and life-lover, always on the move, so are his ideas, his tastes and his wishes. “If I stay still, I fall.” His wine journey began when he was 26 years old and he became the head of M. Chaptouier. Yet, he is not an inheritor – his choices and his vision were disruptive as he stood up against the established ways and ideas, completely changing both viticultural and vinification practices of his family company. He is a man close to the earth, on a quest for revealing terroirs and finding the expression of soils through the taste of his wines.

Since 1991, they have worked tirelessly to convert to biodynamic viticulture, with chemical pesticides and herbicides banned. They have introduced natural elements (minerals, plants, animals) to preserve balance. The soil is fed with organic matter; thus it preserves bacteria which is the real ‘Mother’ of the vine and will transform mineral into vegetal. This precious bacterium transmits the personality of the terroir to the vine and ultimately the wine. Biodynamics is also about understanding the cycles of the earth, the sun and the moon. From these observations they take crucial decisions: when to prune, when to harvest. Yields are respected and each terroir offers its pure essence.