Alexis Duchet - Chai Duchet


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Alexis is the seventh generation to work his family's land in the village of Viré. He now works on 13.5 hectares of vines in the south of Burgundy in the Mâcon-Villages and Viré-Clessé appellations. Armand, Alexis' father, stopped using chemicals in the vineyard in the 1980s when he noticed erosion problems and for ten years he has been farming his land organically. The vineyard is 60 years old on average and more than a hundred years old for some vines! Alexis takes care of this heritage by plowing and strenghten life of the soil, in particular by natural preparations of nettle, comfrey, fern, horsetail... The wines are certified organic since vintage 2022. It will be certified biodynamic in 2025. Alexis Duchet is not opportunistic but fundamentally faithful to his values of respect for nature. The approach is global: the ecological cellar is insulated with straw (which grows right next to it!) and a geobiology approach is integrated into the cellar. Alexis maintains that he does not transform the wine, but that he ensure to guide it with little intervention, with indigenous yeasts. In the spring of 2023, with the help of a tree nurseryman, Alexis planted 280 shrubs (black elderberry, hazel tree, dogwood, juniper, boxwood, hawthorn, etc.) around four plots of vines in Viré.