Domaine de la Bregeonnette           

Stéphan Orieux produces his wonderful wines from this vineyard in Vallet at the heart of the Muscadet region near to Nantes.  At one time the vineyard belonged to the Marquis de Rochechouart, a 17th century musketeer.  The Duke of Saint-Simon, in his memoirs, described him as “a man of valour, excellent company with lots of spirit and discernment.  He was rich and lazy and didn’t find the doors open to advancement as quickly as he liked and left”.

Well how times have changed.  Now in the hands of Stéphan this Domaine is producing some fantastic Muscadet wines.  His father began organic production at the end of the sixties and in 1991 obtained independent organic certification by Ecocert.  In 1997 Stéphan, the third generation of wine producers, took over the family vineyards from his father and set as his objective to re-establish the noble reputation of Muscadet which has so often been decried.

We have great respect for Stéphan’s work and invite you to judge for yourself.  The vineyard covers some ten hectares and benefit from rich soils.  Stéphan pays meticulous attention to promoting the life of the soil through fertilisation and careful management.  All this takes a great deal of hard and, judging by the results, very worthy work.  

Grapes are hand picked, lightly pressed and with the use of only naturally occurring  yeasts the wines are aged for a long time “sur lie” ("lies" are yeast and grape particles /sediment which gives these wines their characteristic intense creamy flavours)