Anecdotes from the estate: Natural wine reflects the terroir and evokes emotion... The estate's story: In 1999, when chef Christophe Pacalet returned from the Antilles to his native Beaujolais, he created his own estate and learned winemaking on the job with his uncle, Marcel Lapierre, a "visionary." The estate's pride: At his Beaujolais property, Domaine des Marcellins, Christophe Pacalet does everything possible to produce great terroir-driven wines: hand-harvesting at peak ripeness, meticulous grape sorting, vinification with indigenous yeasts, aging on fine lees, minimal or no sulfites... He makes it a point of honor to guarantee the typicity of each terroir by working closely in partnership with the winegrowers whose vineyards he harvests year after year and with whom he shares a common vision of the vineyard. He vinifies the harvested grapes with great care and attention, just as he does his own plots, which bear the Beaujolais Villages appellation. It was with his uncle, Marcel Lapierre, an emblematic figure of natural wines, that he established his estate in the late 1990s. Present in several Beaujolais crus, notably Chiroubles, Moulin-à-Vent, and Saint-Amour, Christophe Pacalet crafts wines that are fruity in their youth, some of which develop greater complexity with age, approaching the Pinot Noirs of the Côte de Beaune.