Winery of the BROTHERS

Marie and Valentin Bruneau, from Winery Frères, offer healthy and precise natural wines from the Chinon appellation with their first vintage (2020).

Training with the greatest names in natural wines

As you’ve probably guessed, Henri and Valentin are brothers. After spending their youth in the Chinon region, they both pursued careers in office work. But after a few years behind computers, they’d both had enough. A few years apart, they enrolled in a BTS program in viticulture and oenology and gained experience working with various winemakers. Valentin worked with Yvon Métras (in Beaujolais), Philippe Chigard (in Tours), and Bernard Baudry (in Chinon). Not bad at all! After about half a dozen years of experience each, they took the plunge. Which region to settle in? It didn’t matter to them, as long as they found great plots of land!

A Winery composed of high quality plots

The search began in earnest in 2017. They made numerous visits and phone calls. They worked tirelessly and were determined not to settle for second best. After two years, they were finally ready to return home! They found an Winery in the region where they grew up, in Beaumont-en-Véron, in the Chinon appellation.

10 hectares of red wine (Cabernet Franc) and 1 hectare of white wine (Chenin) divided into several parcels, on 6 different terroirs. The vines are on average 40/45 years old and are located on hillsides and plateaus. The vast majority of the vines come from massal selection.

The choice of organic farming

Marie and Valentin have been running the vineyard organically since they started (AB certification for the 2022 vintage) and only use a little sulfur and copper for treatment. With a view to keeping the soil alive and aerated, they try to only use the tractor once a year and prefer to use a quad bike for treatments (when necessary).
The vines are pruned sparingly to preserve as many leaves as possible, thereby promoting photosynthesis and, as a result, the aromatic complexity of the fruit.

At Winery des Frères, the harvest is of course manual and starts early (during the day), as maturity is essential. The aim is to keep the grapes fresh when they arrive in the cellar.

A very precise vinification with maturation in barrels and bottles

Always with the aim of offering healthy, precise wines that are representative of their terroir, the vinification is carried out on a parcel-by-parcel basis, without any input, and the fermentations are carried out using indigenous yeasts. The juices are regularly analyzed (by them) to follow the good progress of the fermentations.
Some of the wines are aged in concrete vats and others in barrels of several wines that have never seen sulphur (recovered from 'natural' winemakers) located in a magnificent and spacious troglodyte cellar.

The future of natural wines in Chinon

After spending several hours with them, one phrase comes to mind: "hard work always pays off." They know what they want and where they are going. The wines we tasted all have their own identity and surprise with their elegance and freshness. The future belongs to them.