Domaine Thevenet is a father-son domain located in the Beaujolais region. Jean-Paul Thevenet is one of the famous “gang of four” who pioneered organic and natural winemaking in Beaujolais. Tired of Beaujolais’ reputation as a source of cheap, mass-produced wine, Jean-Paul teamed up with 3 other winemakers and set about changing history. They eschewed the newfangled mechanical and chemical processes and returned to the “old ways”, using only old vines, avoiding synthetic pesticides and herbicides, and carefully sorting the fruit. Each of these steps increases the cost of the wines, but the end-result is undeniably higher quality, and better for the land.
His son Charly, now working together with Jean-Paul, is intent on preserving these values. Their domain produces only Beaujolais Cru level wines, meaning you’re getting much more than the stereotypical cheap, young Beaujolais. The grapes are rigorously hand-sorted to get rid of any low quality fruit, and sulfur dioxide is kept to a minimum. Production from this domain is fairly low, with emphasis on producing the best quality wines possible.
If you’ve tried Beaujolais before and been disappointed, try one of their wines available right here, you might just change your mind.