Idylle Pinot Noir 2025

Raphaelle is a pioneer in a forgotten area of Burgundy. A new generation Burgundy producer that immediately impressed us. Despite how young the project is, Raphaelle already feels wiser than her age suggests. Her wines are a balanced reflection of the calcareous slopes in the region. Red wines rich in fruit and crisp structure, white wines with fine acidity and minerality.

Her love for wine began at an early age, when her mother took her on a trip to Beaune when she was 14. Even then, she visited the cellars in Beaune, tasted from the barrels, and felt a special connection to the world of wine. She lived in Paris for a while and worked in wine shops before deciding that winemaking was exactly what she really wanted to do. In 2015, she completed her oenology studies at the University of Beaune. After gaining experience with Thibaut Liger-Belair (Nuits-Saint-Georges), Grange Tiphaine (Montlouis-sur-Loire), and Vincent Pinard (Sancerre), she felt ready to go it alone. She established her own winery in the tiny village of Sainte-Colombe-sur-Loing, near where she comes from in the Puisaye-Forterre region, which lies exactly between Chablis and Sancerre. Before phylloxera, the area was full of vineyards, but many were never replanted afterwards. When Raphaelle arrived, she literally restored abandoned vineyards that had been overgrown with brambles. She makes Pinot Noir, which falls under the Vin des Pays de Yonne appellation. In addition, she also works as a micronégociant with grapes from the surrounding areas: Aligoté and Chardonnay from Auxerre, and Sauvignon Blanc from Saint-Bris.

In her vineyards, she works without pesticides and herbicides. She is committed not only to restoring the vineyards in the area but also to preserving nature. She has already planted hundreds of trees on her land and is working to promote biodiversity. Her cellar practices are also minimal intervention, with only a small amount of sulphite added when the wine is bottled. However, she is uncompromising, and wine is only released if it expresses what she is looking for. She is her own biggest critic – which sometimes results in cuvées that cannot be released. Nevertheless, these are the qualities that, in our view, make her a future great. She started in this new area with the hope that more will follow. With climate change, we believe this part of Burgundy will become increasingly important. Therefore, we are honoured and happy to share her wines with the world, hoping that her greatness will also be recognised by you.