The Filmmaker Turned Farmer
Domaine de la Loue is one of the most compelling stories in the Jura — a 3.2-hectare organic estate in Port-Lesney, founded by Catherine Hannoun, a former film producer who fell in love with wine while working on Jonathan Nossiter's documentary Mondovino. The film exposed the shadier practices of the global wine industry, and for Catherine, it was a revelation that would change her life. She moved to the Jura in 2008, apprenticed alongside the legendary Emmanuel Houillon at Domaine Overnoy, and in 2009 bought her first parcel of vines. By 2016, she had acquired her own cellar. Today, she farms 3.2 hectares of certified organic vineyards around Marnoz and Arbois — Savagnin, Chardonnay, Trousseau, and Pinot Noir — entirely by herself, with occasional help from a horse and donkey for ploughing. Her guiding principle is simple: vines need "elbow grease," not chemicals. In the cellar, Catherine works with intuition and tradition. She vinifies by parcel, allowing each plot to express itself before deciding whether to blend or bottle separately. Her signature technique is the millefeuille — alternating layers of destemmed and whole-bunch grapes every 40 centimetres inside the tank, creating a delicate, layered extraction. All wines are made with indigenous yeasts, no fining, no filtration, and zero added sulfur. The results are age-worthy, soulful wines that unfurl with surprising depth when given time — tight and muted initially, then alive with salty minerals, honeycomb, and ripe tropical fruit. Working alone in the Jura is no easy feat: frost, mildew, and the sheer physical labour of farming 3.2 hectares by hand have wiped out entire vintages. But Catherine perseveres, producing around 12,000 bottles a year of some of the most honest and nourishing wines in the region. The domaine is named after the Loue river, which rises from a spring near Pontarlier and snakes across the Jura, forming the border between Doubs and the Jura — a river of persistence, just like its namesake.
From Film Sets to Vine Rows
Catherine Hannoun's path to winemaking is unlike any other in the Jura. For years, she worked as a film producer, including on Jonathan Nossiter's 2004 documentary Mondovino — a film that pulled back the curtain on the global wine industry's industrialisation, homogenisation, and corporate power structures. The experience was transformative. "Catherine decided to move to the Jura while working as a producer on Nossiter's documentary," her US importer noted. The film that exposed the dark side of wine became the catalyst for her own luminous winemaking journey [^100^][^102^].
She settled in Port-Lesney in 2008 — a small commune about 15 minutes north of Arbois, cradled in a crescent bend of the Loue river. The tranquillity of the Jura hills appealed to her, but she knew she needed guidance. She sought out Emmanuel Houillon, the legendary natural winemaker at Domaine Overnoy, and worked alongside him to learn the craft. Houillon's influence is palpable in her approach: the zero-sulfur commitment, the gentle extraction, the patience, and the absolute refusal to compromise. In 2009, she bought her first parcel of vines. By 2016, she had acquired her own cellar. The domaine was born [^100^][^97^].
Catherine's philosophy is captured in her own words: "Le Jura m'a plu, j'y suis venue. Le vin du Jura aussi. J'en ai fait et je continue. En bio depuis les débuts. Chercher, essayer, réessayer, échanger, se planter, trouver, en baver, s'émerveiller, sont quelques-uns des verbes du quotidien. Rien n'est acquis. Pas tous les jours facile, mais j'aime cette vie autour du vin et de la vigne. 3ha et une nouvelle cave depuis 2016 me donnent un second souffle pour les temps à venir tout en gardant la mesure artisanale qui me plaît." ("I liked the Jura, I came. Jura wine too. I made it and I continue. Organic from the start. Searching, trying, retrying, exchanging, making mistakes, finding, struggling, marveling — these are some of the verbs of daily life. Nothing is guaranteed. Not easy every day, but I love this life around wine and vines. 3 hectares and a new cellar since 2016 give me a second wind for the times to come while keeping the artisanal scale that pleases me.") [^97^].
"Catherine observes biodynamic methods and plows with horse and donkey, but her winery is equipped with modern tools which help her achieve clean, age-worthy natural wine without the use of sulfur."
— Chambers Street Wines
Port-Lesney, Marnoz & Pupillin
The estate's 3.2 hectares are scattered across several communes: Port-Lesney, Marnoz, Aiglepierre, Buffard, Molamboz, and Pupillin. This patchwork of small parcels is typical of the Jura, where holdings are fragmented and each site has its own character. Catherine farms all of them herself, with the help of a horse and donkey for ploughing — a biodynamic practice that avoids soil compaction and maintains the microbial life essential for natural viticulture [^100^][^97^].
The soils vary by parcel. The Savagnin comes from "Sous Roche" near Pupillin, on grey marl-clay soils with southeast exposure — a classic Jura terroir that gives the wine its mineral backbone and saline finish. The Chardonnay is drawn from four communes: Pupillin, Marnoz, Aiglepierre, and Buffard, with vine ages ranging from 10 to 60 years. The reds — Trousseau and Pinot Noir — grow on clay soils with red marl and limestone in Marnoz, Aiglepierre, and Buffard, and on calcareous clay with southeast exposure in Molamboz. This diversity of soils and exposures gives Catherine a palette of flavours to work with, even from just 3.2 hectares [^97^][^98^].
Farming is certified organic and biodynamic in practice, though not formally certified. No synthetic chemicals, no herbicides, no heavy machinery. Catherine's guiding principle — "elbow grease, not chemicals" — means that every vine is tended by hand, every row is ploughed by animal power, and every decision is made in response to the specific needs of each vintage. Working alone, she faces the full force of the Jura's challenging climate: frost, mildew, and the sheer physical exhaustion of farming 3.2 hectares without a team. There have been years when much of her production was wiped out. But the wines that survive are all the more precious for it [^100^][^102^].
The Savagnin parcel near Pupillin, on grey marl-clay soils with southeast-facing slope. This is the estate's most celebrated site, producing Savagnin of crystalline purity and mineral tension. The grey marl gives the wine its flinty, saline character, while the clay provides structure and ageing potential. Vines here are now over 15 years old, reaching maturity and depth.
The red wine parcels sit on clay soils with red marl and limestone, with vine ages ranging from 20 to 70 years. The red marl lends warmth and earthiness to the Trousseau and Pinot Noir, while the limestone ensures freshness and acidity. These are demanding soils that require careful handwork, but they reward patience with wines of unusual depth and complexity.
The Pinot Noir parcel in Molamboz sits on calcareous clay soils with southeast exposure. The 36-year-old vines here produce a Pinot of delicate structure and bright red fruit — a lighter, more ethereal expression than Burgundy, but with a mineral clarity that is distinctly Jura. The calcareous soils give the wine its crisp acidity and fine tannic framework.
The Chardonnay draws from multiple parcels in Pupillin, Marnoz, Aiglepierre, and Buffard — vines ranging from 6 to 60 years old. This diversity of age and site gives the wine its complexity: young vines contribute freshness and fruit, old vines add concentration and depth. The combination creates a Chardonnay that is both approachable and serious, a perfect reflection of Catherine's blending skill.
Millefeuille & Intuition
Catherine Hannoun's cellar work is a marriage of traditional Jura techniques and her own intuitive innovations. She vinifies by parcel, allowing each site to express itself before deciding whether to blend or bottle separately. This parcel-by-parcel approach is labour-intensive but essential to her terroir-driven philosophy. Fermentations are spontaneous, driven by indigenous yeasts that develop naturally in her organic vineyards. No selected yeasts, no enzymes, no additives [^97^][^100^].
Her signature technique is the millefeuille — a layered maceration method that Catherine developed herself. For her reds, she alternates layers of destemmed grapes and whole bunches inside the tank every 40 centimetres until full. This creates a "thousand-leaf" structure that allows for gentle, gradual extraction — the destemmed fruit provides juice and colour, while the whole bunches add spice, tannin, and aromatic complexity from the stems. The result is wines of unusual finesse and depth, with none of the harshness that aggressive extraction can produce. Macerations last 6–7 weeks, an eternity by modern standards, but essential to the wine's character [^97^].
The whites are handled with equal care. Chardonnay is direct-pressed and fermented in stainless steel, with 50% transferred to old barrels for ageing and the remainder kept in tank. The two components are reunited one month before bottling, creating a wine that balances the freshness of steel with the subtle texture of oak. Savagnin follows a similar protocol, with 50% in tank and 50% in neutral 600-litre barrels for 14 months. The wines are never fined or filtered, preserving their natural sediment and living quality [^97^][^98^].
Sulfur is entirely absent from the process. Catherine achieves stability through pristine fruit, immaculate cellar hygiene, and patience. Her wines are clean, age-worthy, and remarkably stable — a testament to the fact that zero-sulfur winemaking is possible when the vineyard and cellar work are flawless. The 2017 Vin Jaune and Vin de Liqueur, released after years of careful ageing, are proof of her long-term vision: wines built to last, not to rush [^100^][^102^].
The Millefeuille Method — Layered Extraction
Catherine's millefeuille technique is one of the most distinctive maceration methods in natural winemaking. Rather than destemming all the grapes or using whole bunches exclusively, she builds the fermenting tank in alternating layers: 40 centimetres of destemmed fruit, then 40 centimetres of whole bunches, repeated until the tank is full. The destemmed layers provide juice, colour, and primary fruit; the whole-bunch layers contribute stem tannins, spice, and a lifted, herbal aromatic profile. As fermentation progresses, the carbon dioxide from the destemmed fruit creates a protective blanket for the whole bunches, allowing intracellular fermentation (carbonic maceration) within the intact berries. The result is a wine of extraordinary complexity — layered, nuanced, and deeply expressive of both grape and terroir. It is a technique that demands patience (6–7 weeks of maceration) and precision, but the results are worth it: wines that unfurl slowly in the glass, revealing new dimensions with each sip. As one importer noted, Catherine's wines "develop complex savory notes that round out the palate, signaling that this could be an excellent wine with short term aging."
One Woman, One Vision
What makes Domaine de la Loue extraordinary is not just the quality of the wines, but the singularity of the vision. Catherine Hannoun is a one-woman operation — she farms, she vinifies, she bottles, she sells. There is no team, no inherited estate, no family tradition to lean on. Everything she has built, she built herself, from a film producer's salary to a vigneron's calloused hands. This independence gives her wines a purity of intention that is rare even in the natural wine world [^100^][^97^].
Her wines have gained recognition far beyond the Jura. They are found in top natural wine bars from New York to Tokyo, praised by critics for their finesse, complexity, and age-worthiness. The Savagnin — both ouillé and skin-macerated — has become particularly sought-after, with collectors seeking out older vintages that demonstrate the wine's remarkable evolution. The 2011 Arbois Savagnin Cuvée Raphaëlle, a skin-macerated cuvée, was described as "tight and muted initially" but after an hour "alive with heady aromas of salty minerals, honeycomb, and ripe tropical fruit." This is the hallmark of Catherine's wines: they demand patience, but they reward it profoundly [^102^].
The future is focused on survival and refinement. Climate change has made the Jura increasingly unpredictable — frost, mildew, and extreme weather events threaten small producers like Catherine more than anyone. Yet she persists, adapting to each vintage's challenges with the same pragmatism that has guided her since 2009. New releases from 2022 and 2023, alongside her unparalleled 2017 Vin Jaune and Vin de Liqueur, show a winemaker at the height of her powers. Domaine de la Loue is proof that the Jura's greatest wines often come from its smallest estates — and that sometimes, the most compelling stories are written by those who arrived without a map [^100^].
"Rien n'est acquis. Pas tous les jours facile, mais j'aime cette vie autour du vin et de la vigne."
— Catherine Hannoun
The Domaine de la Loue Range
All wines are farmed organically, hand-harvested, fermented with indigenous yeasts, bottled unfined and unfiltered, with zero added sulfur. Production is approximately 12,000 bottles per year from 3.2 hectares. The range covers all classic Jura styles, with a particular focus on parcel-specific expressions and Catherine's signature millefeuille maceration for reds [^97^][^100^].