Bénédicte Petit and Luc Briand both grew up in Nantes but arrived at wine from opposite directions. Bénédicte spent a decade as a caviste — a wine merchant — tasting constantly, building an education bottle by bottle. Luc was the son of winemakers who chose not to follow them, pursuing other businesses for decades before circling back. It took him, by his own telling, about forty years to mature his winemaking project.

They purchased their estate from the Richou family in 2019 and earned Demeter certification the following year. The property spans twenty-five to thirty-four hectares organized into seven named terroirs, each vinified to stand on its own. Chenin Blanc dominates, with Cabernet Franc, Grolleau, and Gamay filling the reds.

The harvest comes in eight-kilogram crates — small enough that the fruit at the bottom isn't crushed by its own weight. Aging happens in new oak from three separate coopers, concrete eggs, and terracotta amphoras, each vessel matched to the character of a specific parcel. Bat corridors run between the blocks. Hedgerows and grazing cattle share the land with vines.

"If you want to produce a great wine," Luc says, "you need to have a taste for working the vines."

They don't buy grapes. Every bottle is grown, picked, and made on the property — a simple rule that turns thirty hectares into a full-time commitment to seven distinct expressions of dark Anjou stone.

Their top cuvée, Bigottière, comes from a single parcel. The schist there is so dense you can hear it ring when a hoe strikes it.