Régnié 'Descente Libre'

The domaine of Julien Sunier is one of the most exciting properties to come out of the Beaujolais in the last decade. Despite growing up in Dijon, Sunier was not part of a wine family. His mother, in fact, made her living cutting hair, but one of her regular clients just happened to be Christophe Roumier.

When Julien graduated from school, he had no idea what he wanted to do with his life. He decided to work with Roumier to "see what this wine stuff is all about". He then spent his early twenties globe-trotting on the international wine route, from New Zealand to California, enabling him to surf and work harvest in both hemispheres. When he returned to Burgundy, Julien worked alongside winemakers Nicolas Potel in Nuits Saint-Georges and Jean-Claude Rateau in Beaune, where he solidified a passion for organic and biodynamic viticulture.

In the Spring of 2008, Julien set out on his own to pursue his dream of establishing a domaine more in sync with his own ideas of organic viticulture and natural winemaking. He secured three hectares of densely planted, old-vine, high altitude parcels in the Cru villages of Fleurie, Morgon and Régnié. He converted all of these vineyards to organic viticulture, and is intent on spreading the gospel of natural viticulture with wild abandon. Harvesting entirely by hand, Julien does whole cluster, indigenous yeast fermentations in concrete vats at low temperatures in an effort to preserve fresh fruit flavors and a delicate tannin structure. After the fermentations are complete, the fruit is slowly and gently pressed over a 24-hour period using an ancient vertical press Julien acquired in the Côte D’Or. The wines are then aged for up to 11 months in 3 - 9 year old Burgundy hand-me-down barrels from his old friend, Christophe Roumier.