Sextant & Domain Derain - Burgundy Natural Wine

What unites both labels is a way of working that still counts as radical in Burgundy. This is properly low-intervention wine. The vines are farmed without weedkillers or synthetic sprays, the grapes are picked by hand, and fermentation happens with the wild yeasts that live on the fruit and in the cellar, never packaged commercial ones. Nothing is added to fatten or correct the wine along the way.

The clearest expression of that is their handling of sulphur. Most wine, even much that calls itself natural, gets a protective dose of sulphites at bottling. Julien pushes the other way, keeping additions tiny and, in plenty of cuvées, dropping them entirely for a wine with nothing added and nothing taken away. It is a high-wire act that demands immaculate fruit and a careful cellar, and it gives wines a freshness and energy that a heavier hand would smother.

They are not alone in this pursuit. A cluster of like-minded growers, several sharing a cellar in nearby Auxey-Duresses, is chasing the same honesty. The Californian Jon Purcell bottles tender, unhurried wines as Vin Noé. Bastian Wolber, working partly under the Laisse Tomber name, turns cleanly farmed fruit into taut, mineral Chardonnay and Pinot. Morgane Seuillot and Christian Knott make bright, expressive bottles at Domaine Dandelion.

Set beside Derain and Sextant, these names form the backbone of a new Burgundy. It is a version of the region that prizes life and drinkability over gloss, and it is some of the most exciting wine being made in France today.