La Soufrandiere

The three Bret Brothers - Marc-Antoine, Jean-Guillaume and Jean-Philippe - have Burgundy in their veins, having been brought up by farmers in the Macon. However, their family long sold off their grapes, and only in 2000 did the brothers decide to make the wines themselves, unconvinced that the local Co-op was creating anything worthy of their efforts in the vineyard. In 2001, they took it a step further with the creation of Bret Brothers, which would serve as a negociant for grapes from equally enthusiastic growers nearby.

Everything is tended organically, with biodynamic practices being put into use in the vineyards more recently, throughout the villages of Saint-Veran, Pouilly-Fuisse and Pouilly-Vinzelles for La Soufrandiere. The Bret Brothers range can vary widely in terms of its villages as they truly look to multiple talented and rising star vignerons in their surrounding regions.One thing that we should bring to your attention: they will create multiple versions of the same wines, with a "Zen" cuvee added to the top Soufrandiere cuvees, signifying no added sulfur during the winemaking process. This results in even more rapturous, effusive fruit character upon opening. "The Zen wines are a touch more expensive but worth it," Noah admits after downing a glass of En Chatenay Cuvee Zen , "just so open and giving." Returning to the 2020 Sant-Veran La Combe Desroches, his eyes narrow. "Man, this is beautifully ripe, but so full of tension - this salty note that makes you crave it even more."

Watch out also for the Pouilly-Vinzelles Les Quarts Cuvee Zen, a cuvee from some of their oldest (70+ years) vines, where the berries are tiny and intense, each flavor and structural element intensified. En Chatenay shows off a different mineral component of Chardonnay, coming from red soils atop ancient limestone. La Carbonnode is a wild experiment as well, where Chardonnay is vinified much like Beaujolais frequently is, allowing carbonic maceration to occur (whole grapes preserved, allowing the surrounding fermenting juice to then begin the grapes' fermentation inside the intact grapes; this heightens the aromatics and mineral component).