According to Etienne Bodet, wine has always been integral to his identity. Born into a grape growing family, his childhood memories include picking grapes with his father during harvest, as well as being tasked with debudding vineyards, collecting vine cuttings, and more. The Bodet family has farmed vines on the right bank of Loire since the late-19th century, rendering Etienne the fifth generation of his family’s lineage.

Today, Etienne remains based in his childhood village of Montreuil-Bellay. Apart from his family’s holdings, his personal business as a micro-négoce began in 2017, focused on just one sparkling cuvée, called Physis. However, things shifted upon receiving 1.4 hectares of Cabernet Franc—deemed the Clos Durandière—as a wedding gift from his family, a parcel he’d been overseeing since 2015. Slowly but surely, Etienne has added small amounts of Chenin Blanc, Grolleau, and additional Cabernet Franc to his holdings over the past eight years. As of 2019, the Domaine Etienne Bodet was officially established.

Come harvest, all fruit is picked by hand. In the cellar, fermentations are done exclusively with native yeasts in open-top casks, followed by aging in large-format French oak barrels and clay amphorae. The resulting wines are delicate, perfumed, and bursting with flavor, marked with fine-grained tannins and a distinct minerality unique to this corner of the world. Dare we call these wines the Burgundy of Spain? We’ll let you be the judge.