Clos Sauvage

Leynes, Beaujolais & Burgundy, France

"The link between grape and wine is a nice coincidence, but we are far more interested in the link between vine and soil, plants and their ecosystems."  

Sophie and David Devynck have their sights set on a much bigger project than simply a wine estate. When they took over a nearly-abandoned 7 hectare wine farm in 2018, they kept only two hectares and ripped out the rest to make room for future phases of their quest towards self-sufficiency. 

Neither David nor Sophie came from an agricultural background, it is a path they both fell into from a general passion for all things ecological, and a connection to soil and nature. Following a 2-yr stint working for a local forest ecosystem in the pacific islands of Wallis and Futuna, an experience that proved foundational for them both, they returned to France in 2013 and settled in the Southwest near Toulouse. 

It was here that David's connection to viticulture was sparked by a friend he met on a farm, an interest that led him to study oenology and viticulture for three years. He started his first foray into wine working at the 40-hectare Chateau des Saurs, an experience from which he learned about organic farming and logistics on a large scale, and from which he acquired beneficial knowledge that would be crucial in helping him and Sophie on their next adventure.

In 2017 they drove around most of France's wine growing regions in a search for the perfect place to start their project. It was love at first sight when by chance they stumbled across their current farm, a beautiful wild piece of land at 450m of altitude on the exact border between Burgundy and Beaujolais. 

The aim from the start has been to create an autonomous farm where vines are grown alongside many other products, where cows and horses roam on adjacent pastures, where bees are kept, and where farmstays are possible. It's all a work in progress, but they have wasted no time in regenerating the land and so far producing some rather stunning wines in the process. 

Aside from the two hectares of vines on their property they are also farming an additional 4 or so across a variety of soils that include limestone, clay, granite, as well as the volcanic and plutonic 'Pierres Bleues' or 'blue rocks' that form part of their Saint Amour vineyard. The farming is of course far beyond the standards of organic, and in the cellar they do their utmost and the bare minimum to showcase the exact piece of land the vines grow on. 

"We don't look for what we don't find in the soil," David says, meaning they do not try to make a big textured wine that comes from pure rock, or a lean and chiselled wine that comes from thick clay soils and so on. This Burgundian approach means that all their whites are made in roughly the same way and hence highlight their difference in provenance. 

All of their whites are on the Burgundy side (Saint Véran, Pouilly Fuissé, Mâcon Chaintré) whilst all their reds come from Beaujolais (Saint Amour, Julienas, Beaujolais-Leynes). 

Clos Sauvage, or 'wild estate,' is exactly the sort of project that excites us and that we are so keen to get on board with. A forward-thinking project with a potent ecological backbone and boundary-pushing ethos. It is a fortunate coincidence for us that they also produce some truly world-class wines.