Domaine Romuald Petit

Saint-Vérand sits on the limestone that runs south from the rock of Solutré, the same seam that gives Pouilly-Fuissé its backbone. The Saint-Véran parcels are on these limestone-clay slopes, which keep Chardonnay taut and mineral rather than fat. A short drive south the soils change completely: the Chiroubles comes from a single hectare of Gamay, around sixty years old, on the granite and schist that make it the highest and lightest-footed of the Beaujolais crus.

The whites are vinified by parcel, with the top Saint-Véran cuvées raised on fine lees for the better part of a year, partly in barrel and partly in tank, so that the wine gains texture without losing its edge. The Chiroubles is handled simply: a gentle maceration, then around ten months in tank with no oak, to keep the old-vine Gamay bright and the fruit in front. Production is small, about 3,500 bottles of the Chiroubles in a good year.

Romuald converted the estate to organic farming from 2019 and has since been certified, a decision taken for the soils as much as for the label. The wines are made to be precise and drinkable rather than imposing: Saint-Véran that tastes of its limestone, Beaujolais that tastes of its granite. Visitors are welcomed at the estate for tastings and direct sales, which is still how a good part of the production finds its home.

Romuald Petit came back to his roots in 2005 with a little under six hectares in Saint-Vérand and built the domaine from there, adding Beaujolais parcels in Chiroubles, Morgon and Saint-Amour over the following years. The estate now works around a dozen hectares and has become a regular in the Hachette guide, with the Chiroubles and several Saint-Véran cuvées cited across recent vintages.

Saint-Véran, Chardonnay on limestone: citrus, white flowers and a chalky finish, the Mâconnais at its most precise. Chiroubles, Gamay from a single hectare of sixty-year-old vines on granite: light, perfumed, red-fruited, a cru to serve a touch cool.