Christophe PacaletGranite, Gamay, Grace
A Beaujolais outsider-insider: trained with Marcel Lapierre, rooted in Cercié, sourcing old-vine parcels across the crus and turning them into vivid, low-intervention wines that feel both classic and quietly rebellious.
From kitchens and biochemistry to the granite slopes of Beaujolais.
Christophe Pacalet began outside the standard vigneron script. Before making wine, he worked as a chef and also had a background in biology and chemistry. He eventually returned to his native Beaujolais and learned hands-on with his uncle, the late Marcel Lapierre, one of the region’s defining natural-wine figures.
In 1999, Pacalet launched his own project in Cercié, building a model based not on inherited domaine holdings but on carefully chosen vineyard parcels and long-term grower relationships. Rather than owning vast acreage, he became known as a micro-négociant with an unusually precise eye for terroir, old vines, and cru character.
Today his range stretches across Beaujolais, Beaujolais-Villages, Côte de Brouilly, Chénas, Juliénas, Saint-Amour, Fleurie, Chiroubles, Moulin-à-Vent, and Beaujolais Blanc, with the cellar in Cercié serving as the anchor point for a broad but coherent portrait of the northern Beaujolais landscape.
Low intervention, old-vine fruit, and a Beaujolais grammar written in carbonic finesse.
Pacalet’s work starts with carefully selected old-vine parcels, often from vines between 40 and 80 years old. Fruit is hand harvested, yields stay modest, and vineyard work follows a restrained, environmentally conscious approach that avoids chemical herbicides, fertilizers, and fungicides whenever possible.
In the cellar, the signature is unmistakable: indigenous yeast fermentation, a strong reliance on cold carbonic maceration, élevage in old foudres and barrels, and bottling with an intentionally light touch. The aim is not glossy extraction, but lift, perfume, drinkability, and site expression.
This is Beaujolais in high definition: not caricatured “natural wine,” not polished anonymity either. The wines preserve fruit and immediacy, but they also carry the seriousness of cru terroir — floral in Fleurie, darker and more structured in Moulin-à-Vent or Chénas, stony and vivid in Côte de Brouilly.
Carbonic Precision
Old Wood Élevage
Cru Transparency
From Fleurie’s elegance to Moulin-à-Vent’s structure — a map of Beaujolais through old vines and granite soils.
Old Vines
Pacalet focuses on mature vineyard parcels, often between 40 and 80 years old. That age matters: lower yields, more concentration, and a natural depth that supports his gentle cellar work.
Site Specificity
He works across a broad spread of Beaujolais appellations — Fleurie, Chénas, Juliénas, Saint-Amour, Chiroubles, Moulin-à-Vent, Côte de Brouilly and more — letting each cru speak with its own floral, spicy, or structural signature.
Gravity Cellar
The cellar outside Cercié sits strategically close to the appellations he vinifies. Carbonic fermentations happen upstairs, while maturation in the older cellar below benefits from gravity movement and old-vessel élevage.
Cru Beaujolais with lift, perfume, and nerve — plus a blanc that slips quietly into the lineup.
Fleurie “Les Labourons”
The flagship site. Les Labourons in Fleurie gives Pacalet some of his most delicate, lifted wines: floral, velvety, and quietly age-worthy, with the kind of ethereal texture that explains why Fleurie remains one of Beaujolais’ most beloved crus.
Moulin-à-Vent
One of the more built and age-worthy wines in the range. Pacalet’s Moulin-à-Vent draws on more complex soils and tends toward darker fruit, greater tension, and a deeper frame without sacrificing the brightness that defines his style.
Chiroubles
A more airborne expression of Gamay. Chiroubles leans floral and generous, often showing vivid fruit and softness, with the kind of buoyant charm that makes Pacalet’s low-intervention style feel especially natural.
Juliénas
Juliénas brings a more spiced and firm register to the portfolio, with notes that can move from raspberry and peach toward something more savory and age-worthy. It is one of the bottles where Pacalet’s precision really shows.
Chénas
In Pacalet’s hands, Chénas lands closer to the more serious end of Beaujolais: elegant yet rooted, with floral notes layered over a stronger chassis. A bottle that rewards patience without ever losing its drinkability.
Saint-Amour
Saint-Amour gives the range a particularly open and generous face: red fruit, softness, and immediate appeal, but still held together by the firm, fine-boned palate that runs across all of Pacalet’s wines.
Beaujolais-Villages
A pure expression of the house style: fresh, joyful, ruby-bright Gamay with crunchy fruit and immediate pleasure. The kind of bottle that explains why Pacalet remains a touchstone for people who want Beaujolais without makeup.
Côte de Brouilly
Sourced from the volcanic-blue-stone identity of Côte de Brouilly, this cuvée tends toward darker fruit, more mineral presence, and a slightly more grounded, savory energy than the most floral wines in the range.
Beaujolais Blanc
The outlier in a Gamay-heavy portfolio, Beaujolais Blanc brings white flowers, fresh fruit, and a rounded but finely balanced palate with a gentle touch of vanilla. A subtle reminder that Pacalet’s touch is not limited to reds.
The Cru Beaujolais Spectrum
Floral, lifted, velvety
Les Labourons
Darker, deeper, structured
The cellar-worthy side
Airy, perfumed, open-knit
Pure drinkability
Pacalet’s range works like a moving atlas of Beaujolais: each cru carries a different contour, but the handwriting stays the same — indigenous yeast, measured élevage, old-vine fruit, and the refusal to bury terroir under technique.
The Quiet Radical of Cercié
Christophe Pacalet matters because he helped legitimize a model that once looked secondary: the serious micro-négociant who can buy fruit yet still make wines of unmistakable place. In a region often reduced to easy-drinking stereotypes, he shows how Beaujolais can be joyful without being simplistic.
His legacy is tied to the Lapierre orbit, but it is not reducible to inheritance. Pacalet’s own signature is clarity: old vines, careful sourcing, carbonic finesse, and a cellar approach that values fragrance and movement over force. These wines don’t shout. They glide — and that is precisely the point.
- Founded project in 1999
- Based in Cercié, Beaujolais
- Trained with Marcel Lapierre
- Chef and science background
- Micro-négociant model
- About 8 hectares worked
- Old vines 40–80 years
- Hand harvested fruit
- Cold carbonic maceration
- Indigenous yeasts
- Old foudres and barrels
- Minimal sulfur approach
- Gravity-fed cellar movement
- Fleurie “Les Labourons”
- Moulin-à-Vent specialist
- Chénas and Chiroubles range
- Juliénas and Saint-Amour
- Côte de Brouilly bottling
- Beaujolais Blanc in range
- Natural Beaujolais reference