Vignes du Maynes
Burgundy

Clos des Vignes du Maynes is part of the Burgundian dynamic of land registration by the monks. Its origins date back to the year 910, when the Abbey of Cluny was founded by the Duke of Aquitaine. Owned by the lords of the castle of Cruzille, the estate belonged to five generations of farmers before being bought in 1952 by Julian’s grandfather Pierre.

Despite the post war industrialisation of wine, he chose to make wines in an organic way, without chemicals, sulfur or filtration. Julian’s father Alain continued this path and was president of the National Federation of Organic Agriculture in the 1990’s.

When Julian took over the estate in 2001, he was just 27. He introduced the first biodynamic preparation in 1998, subsequently transitioning the domaine. The Clos has never known chemistry and has always been cultivated with the greatest respect for the land since its origins. 2024 marked 70 years of vinification for the Guillot family. 

Located in the Maconnais village of Cruzille, Vignes du Maynes covers 7 hectares, consisting of 27 plots, with an eastern exposure. The terroir is a Bathonian-type base (around twenty million years old) where rocks of different origins coexist, the soil composition is clay limestone. 

Grapes are hand harvested and fermented in old oak foudres. The white varieties are pressed slowly, aging on lees in old barriques. For the reds, vinification is a mille feuille – alternating layers of whole clustered grapes and destemmed grapes, a semi carbonic fermentation. Wines are not touched until after easter. Racking is done on a waning and setting moons, so that there is the quietest possible activity. The finished wines are without fining or filtration.

The Maconnais was once considered the poor cousin of Burgundy, but since the early 2000’s that has changed a lot. These wines have distinct characteristics of both fruit and minerality.