Marcel Couturier comes from a long line of winemakers in the southern Mâconnais where he is one of four producers bottling at the estate in Mâcon-Loché. For a time, the Couturier family brought their grapes to the Vinzelles cooperative cellar, but over the years, working the old chardonnay vines belonging to his family, Marcel gradually expanded his estate and began bottling at the domain in 2005, quickly making a name for himself throughout France.
Marcel likes to take his time, working intuitively, respecting each terroir and the resulting wine. Coming from several generations of farmers in the Mâconnais region, he is patient in the vineyard and the cellar, giving each wine time to reveal itself. Marcel has established himself as a traditionalist with his old vines and high standards in an estate that quickly becomes a source of top-of-the-line white Burgundy wine.
In total, Marcel cultivates 11 hectares of Chardonnay vines in several appellations: Pouilly-Fuissé, Pouilly-Loché, Saint-Véran, Mâcon-Loché, Mâcon-Vinzelles and Mâcon Blanc. Most of his vines are quite old, with many parcels exceeding 70 years and his "young" vines averaging 30 years old.
Marcel has always had an approach close to organic farming, plowing his vines for example. This is a non-aggressive approach for the vines, especially for the many old vines in their vineyards. When Auxence, his son, joined him after graduating with his bachelor’s degree in 2017, the entire estate was officially launched towards an organic and biodynamic conversion, now certified.
To make fine wine, the grapes must be healthy and beautiful. It is also quite natural that the Domaine has turned to organic and biodynamic farming, with fermentation and vinification in the barrels being done naturally and quietly. No chemical products or inputs are used in their wines, allowing them to express specifically each terroir and each parcel. This is their everyday philosophy.
Today, the winemaking is meticulous, employing only certified organic and biodynamic methods; he tills the soil to reduce weeds and believes that poor, hard clay soils benefit greatly from aeration and the introduction of native organic matter. His farming style could be described as regenerative, in that he has taken great care to improve the soil of each vineyard he farms. As a traditional farmer, Marcel lets his chickens, geese and guinea fowl roam the vineyards to naturally control pests and add valuable nitrogen to the poor Burgundian soil. As the summers warm-up, Marcel keeps pushing back his harvest dates to keep the wine fresh and lively.
This typically Bourguignon terroir is composed in part of chalky marl and chalky clay, derived from the neighbouring terroir: Pouilly-Vinzelles - Pouilly-Fuissé.