Those who have already discovered our table know that I am keen on suggesting lesser-known wines that are yet refined, elegant and taut.
I choose them mainly from Swiss but also Italian or French winemakers.
For the last few years, I have been lucky to collaborate with the Courtois family in Sologne, in the Centre-Val de Loire region.
Claude Courtois is one of the main pioneers of the so-called natural wines in France. His estate in Soings-en-Sologne is named Les Cailloux du Paradis.
With his wife, Claudine, they have spent their time and energy cultivating their wine organically, naturally without any chemicals whatsoever — wines in total synergy with nature and its soil that combines clay and silex. Claude is a man of convictions, demanding and sincere, sensitive and passionate about his profession, his vineyards and his grapes.
The most representative wine of his estate is called Racines. This wine sums up all the values of the estate and embodies its philosophy: the drawing on its label represents a tree whose roots go deep into the soil but whose branches rise as high as they can to reach the sky.
Today, his son Étienne has taken over from Claude and his inheritance flourishes and blooms thanks to his similar demands together with an identical humbleness and respect for nature. His brother Julien, too, has his own estate nearby — the Clos de la Bruyère — which he runs with his partner, Heidi Kuka, a New Zealand Māori artist whose drawings ornate their wine labels.