The Boar Farm, the Frontenac Blanc & the Regenerative Hand
La Bauge Vineyard is Canada's first and only Regenerative Organic Certified winery — a four-decade family farm in the Brome-Missisquoi Valley of Quebec's Eastern Townships that began as a wild boar farm, became a dairy farm, and evolved into a beacon of regenerative viticulture. Founded in 1986 by Alcide and Ghislaine Naud — who, with brothers Alain and Jacques Brault, planted the first vines after a decade of dairy farming — the estate is now run by their son Simon Naud, with Steve Beauséjour (a Montreal sommelier and natural wine pioneer who joined in 2019) in the cellar, and Véronique Lemieux (who joined in 2022) leading regenerative agriculture research. In October 2024, La Bauge became the first vineyard in Canada certified by the Regenerative Organic Alliance — the highest standard in the world for organic farming. The estate is also certified organic and in transition to full organic certification on every bottle. Since 2020, the winery has upheld a resolute commitment to natural winemaking: no oenological products, no yeasts, no sulfites, no sugar, no fining, and no filtration. The wines are hand-harvested, wild-fermented, and bottled raw. The vineyard sits on a southern slope of a slate ridge covered with sandy-silty glacial deposits — soils left by the ancient Champlain Sea that give the wines a distinctive density, depth, and minerality. The farm is a veritable zoo: sheep graze the vineyards, ducks roam freely, alpacas, boars, deer, and yaks coexist among the vines. And in 2006, Simon Naud discovered a spontaneous mutation on a Frontenac Gris vine that produced golden-yellow fruits — creating Frontenac Blanc, a new grape variety that has since spread across Quebec and the northern United States. This is not a winery that follows trends. It is a farm that has been healing its land for 40 years — and the wine is simply the proof.
The Boar Farm, the Dairy & the Naud Hand
The story of La Bauge begins with a wild boar — or rather, with a family obsessed with animals. In 1976, Robert Naud founded La Bauge as a boar farm — the first pure-bred wild boar operation in Canada — an hour outside of Montreal in the village of Brigham. The name La Bauge itself comes from the French word for the wallow where wild boars roll in the mud. After a decade of raising boars, the family transitioned to dairy farming, but Alcide and Ghislaine Naud had a different vision. In 1986, together with brothers Alain and Jacques Brault, they planted the first vines — Seyval Blanc and Chancellor — and established a winery on the land. The early years were conventional: standard viticulture, standard winemaking, and a search for what would grow in Quebec's hostile climate.
Their youngest son, Simon Naud, grew up among the vines, the boars, and the dairy cows. In 1997, while working with three other winegrowers and nurserymen, he co-founded the Club de recherche et développement en Vitiviniculture du Québec — a research group that, on behalf of the Association des Vignerons du Québec, travelled to the world's northernmost wine regions to identify new grape varieties and winemaking methods that could survive Quebec's winters. The team introduced several varieties to Canada, including Frontenac — now the most widely grown grape in Quebec. Simon took the reins of the family winery from his parents and began steering it toward something more ambitious than conventional wine.
The turning point came in 2016, when the family began the transition to organic viticulture — abandoning the chemicals that had defined the first 30 years. In 2019, Steve Beauséjour joined the team — an experienced sommelier who had studied at the ITHQ in Montreal, worked in renowned bars and restaurants, and become a key figure in the growth of natural wine in Montreal. Together, Simon and Steve created Les Beaux Jus — a line of natural wines built around the crisp acidity of local grape varieties, with no additives or chemicals in the vineyard or the winery, bottled unfiltered with no added sulfites. In 2022, Véronique Lemieux joined — a woman passionate about biodiversity, agroforestry, and the role of animals in regenerative agriculture. With her, the team planted new plots as a study base for regenerative principles. And in October 2024, La Bauge became the first vineyard in Canada certified by the Regenerative Organic Alliance — the highest standard in the world for organic agriculture.
"Our wines are crafted as naturally as possible, without the use of any oenological products, including yeasts, sulfites, or sugar. Our wines are neither filtered nor fined, resulting in vibrant and authentic wines."
— La Bauge Vineyard
Brome-Missisquoi, Brigham & the Champlain Sea Hand
The Brome-Missisquoi Valley is a rolling agricultural corridor at the foothills of the Appalachian Mountains in Quebec's Eastern Townships — a region of glacial lakes, mixed forests, and farmland that has been cultivated since the Loyalist settlers arrived in the 18th century. The climate is continental and challenging: winters that can kill vines, humid summers that encourage disease, and a growing season that demands cold-hardy varieties. But the same glacial geology that makes farming difficult also gives the wines their distinctive character — sandy-silty soils over slate bedrock, deposited by the ancient Champlain Sea that covered this area millennia ago, leaving behind a mineral density and depth that is unmistakably La Bauge.
The vineyard sits on the southern slope of a small slate ridge — an eastward-sloping hill that catches the morning sun and provides excellent air drainage. The soils are silty-sandy glacial sediments over fractured slate — poor in organic matter but rich in mineral complexity, with excellent drainage that forces vines to struggle and concentrate their fruit. The Champlain Sea, which once covered this entire region, left behind marine deposits that contribute a saline, chalky minerality to the wines — a geological signature that distinguishes La Bauge from other Quebec vineyards on different soil types. The site is not protected from the harshest winds, but the southern exposure and the slope create a microclimate that is slightly warmer and drier than the valley floor.
The vineyard is not a monoculture but a living ecosystem — a farm where vines coexist with a veritable zoo of animals. Sheep are brought directly into the vineyards to graze weeds and fertilise the soil. Ducks roam the property freely, controlling insects and adding their manure to the ecosystem. Alpacas, boars, deer, and yaks live on the farm, contributing to the biodiversity and the closed-loop nutrient cycle. In 2022-2023, a new vineyard plot was established specifically to study the effects of biodiversity, agroforestry, and animal integration on soil health and vine resilience. This is not farming for yield; it is farming for soil regeneration, carbon sequestration, and ecosystem resilience — the principles that earned La Bauge its Regenerative Organic Certification.
Brigham is a small village in the Brome-Missisquoi Valley, nestled between the Appalachian Mountains and the fertile farmland of the Eastern Townships. For La Bauge, Brigham is home — a place where the Naud family has farmed for nearly 50 years, where the wild boar farm became a dairy farm became a vineyard, and where the community knows the family by name. The village is not a tourist destination; it is a working agricultural community where farmers share equipment, knowledge, and the challenges of Quebec's climate. The proximity to Montreal — just an hour away — means that the vast majority of La Bauge's wines are distributed within a two-hour radius, keeping the farm deeply connected to its local market. For the Nauds, Brigham is not a wine region in the European sense; it is a farm that happens to make wine, and the village is the community that supports it.
The vineyard sits on the southern slope of a small slate ridge, an eastward-sloping hill that provides the ideal exposure for ripening grapes in Quebec's short season. The soils are sandy-silty glacial sediments over fractured slate bedrock — the legacy of the Champlain Sea, which covered this area in prehistoric times. The sea left behind marine deposits that give the wines a distinctive density, depth, and minerality — a saline, chalky backbone that is unmistakably La Bauge. The slate provides excellent drainage, forcing vines to send roots deep into the bedrock in search of water and nutrients. The southern slope catches the sun from dawn to mid-afternoon, creating a warm microclimate that helps the cold-hardy hybrid varieties achieve phenolic maturity. This is not the limestone of Burgundy or the clay of Bordeaux; it is the glacial slate and marine sediment of Quebec — a terroir that is still being understood, one vintage at a time.
La Bauge is a farm before it is a winery, and the animals are not decorations but essential workers in the regenerative system. Sheep are brought directly into the vineyard rows to graze weeds, control undergrowth, and deposit manure that fertilises the soil. Ducks roam freely, eating insects and slugs that would otherwise damage the vines. Alpacas, boars, deer, and yaks coexist on the property, contributing to the biodiversity that regenerative agriculture requires. The animals are not pets; they are part of a closed-loop nutrient cycle that reduces dependence on agricultural machinery and polluting energy sources. In the new research plots planted in 2022-2023, fruit trees and shrubs are integrated with the vines to create a polyculture that supports pollinators, beneficial insects, and soil microorganisms. This is viticulture as ecosystem management — where the health of the vineyard is measured not by yield but by the number of species that call it home.
In October 2024, La Bauge became the first vineyard in Canada to be certified by the Regenerative Organic Alliance — the highest standard in the world for organic agriculture. This certification goes beyond organic and biodynamic to require measurable improvements in soil health, animal welfare, and social fairness. For La Bauge, regenerative viticulture means: no synthetic pesticides, herbicides, or fertilisers; cover cropping and companion planting to build soil organic matter; rotational grazing by sheep and other animals to aerate the soil and add nutrients; integration of fruit trees and shrubs to create biodiversity corridors; and a commitment to sequestering carbon rather than emitting it. The certification is not a marketing badge but a moral framework — a recognition that the vineyard must give more to the land than it takes. The result is a farm that is measurably more resilient, more biodiverse, and more fertile than it was 40 years ago.
Zero Additions, Wild Yeast & the Frontenac Hand
La Bauge's winemaking philosophy is distilled in a single commitment: no oenological products of any kind. Since 2020, every wine crafted at the vineyard has adhered to the principles of natural winemaking: minimal intervention in the vineyard and the cellar, hand-harvested fruit, native yeast fermentation, zero fining, zero filtration, and zero sulfur — or, in the case of some cuvées, a minimal dose (around 15 mg/L) during racking to protect the wine. No commercial yeast is added. No enzymes. No tannins. No sugar. No acid adjustments. The wines are bottled raw, unfiltered, and unfined — carrying their sediment, their haze, and their microbial memory from vineyard to glass. As the winery states: "Our wines are crafted as naturally as possible, without the use of any oenological products, including yeasts, sulfites, or sugar. Our wines are neither filtered nor fined, resulting in vibrant and authentic wines."
The approach is hands-on, small-lot, and vintage-dictated — Simon Naud and Steve Beauséjour taste the fruits as they ripen, attempting to understand each variety's personality and nuances before deciding on the best winemaking method. Some wines undergo carbonic maceration — like the Les Beaux Jus Frontenac Blanc, which spends nine days on skins with native yeasts before being transferred to 2,000-litre concrete eggs for a month and a half, then aged on lees for six months with bâtonnage. Others are direct-pressed and fermented in stainless steel. The Beau Jus Blues is a daring experiment: Frontenac Noir pressed immediately upon arrival from the field, then fermented on Gewürztraminer skins — a happy marriage that adds structure and aromatic complexity. The Évolution series assembles wines from several vintages, reflecting the vineyard's transformation over the years. Every wine is different. Every wine is an experiment. And every wine is bottled with the same radical transparency.
What emerges from this zero-addition, animal-integrated approach is a portfolio that is both vibrantly alive and deeply rooted in place. The Frontenac Blanc — the grape discovered as a spontaneous mutation at La Bauge in 2006 — is golden-amber, aromatic, and textured, with quince, linden blossom, and hay notes. The Frontenac Noir is spicy, fruity, and energetic, with the subtle tannins that Simon particularly appreciates during carbonic fermentation. The Marquette and Petite Pearl add depth and structure to the reds. The La Crescent contributes explosive aromatics. And the Vidal and Hibernal provide the acidic backbone that defines Quebec's cold-climate whites. The piquette — made from grape pomace in a circular economy perspective — is a low-alcohol refresher that honours the ancient tradition of farm wine. This is not winemaking for consistency; it is winemaking for honesty, regeneration, and the joy of discovering what Quebec's native grapes can become when left to their own devices.
Zero Additions, Wild Yeast & the Regenerative Covenant
The guiding principle of La Bauge's cellar is that the grape already knows what it wants to become — the winemaker's job is to protect, guide, and get out of the way. The regenerative organic viticulture provides healthy, complex grapes from living soils teeming with indigenous yeast and beneficial microorganisms. The hand harvest ensures that only pristine fruit enters the press. The native yeast fermentation — spontaneous, unaided, and unpredictable — captures the microbial soul of the Brome-Missisquoi Valley. The absence of fining and filtration preserves the raw texture, the phenolic grip, and the living character that industrial processes would strip away. The absence of sulfites — or the minimal dose only when necessary — means that every wine is a true expression of its place and its season, uncorrected and unmasked. And the integration of animals, fruit trees, and biodiversity corridors ensures that the vineyard is not just a source of grapes but a healing ecosystem. The cellar is not a factory but a continuation of the farm — where Simon Naud, Steve Beauséjour, and Véronique Lemieux shape wines that are built to express place, designed to honour the land, and destined to prove that Quebec's most exciting wines come from the people who farm with sheep, ducks, and radical patience.
Les Beaux Jus, Beau Jus Blues, Évolution & the Frontenac Blanc Hand
The La Bauge portfolio is a vibrant, constantly evolving collection of natural wines — each one shaped by the estate's zero-addition philosophy, regenerative viticulture, and restless experimentation with Quebec's cold-hardy hybrid varieties. The wines span skin-fermented Frontenac Blanc, carbonic maceration reds, Gewürztraminer-skin experiments, multi-vintage blends, and traditional piquette — all united by native yeast, no additives, no fining, no filtration, and minimal or zero sulfites. Production is small and locally focused — over 80% of the wines are distributed within a two-hour radius of the vineyard — though the wines have begun to reach New York and Europe. The current portfolio represents a four-decade exploration of what Quebec's terroir can produce when farmed regeneratively and fermented naturally.
The Boar Farm, the Frontenac Blanc & the Regenerative Hand
La Bauge Vineyard is not merely a winery; it is a proof that a boar farm in Quebec can become Canada's first Regenerative Organic Certified vineyard, discover a new grape variety, and produce natural wines that are poured in Montreal's best restaurants and exported to New York. In an era when the Quebec wine industry was still dominated by conventional farming, chemical inputs, and the pursuit of Bordeaux imitations, the Naud family — with Simon, Steve Beauséjour, and Véronique Lemieux — demonstrate that the most profound wines sometimes come from a farm where sheep graze the vines, ducks roam freely, and a spontaneous mutation on a Frontenac Gris plant can create an entirely new grape. The same regenerative philosophy that defines the vineyard — animals integrated into the ecosystem, fruit trees planted among the vines, storm water filtered until it is drinkable — now defines every bottle: zero additions, zero subtractions, and a refusal to hide behind chemistry or polish.
The legacy of La Bauge is the legacy of the patient hand in Canadian viticulture. Simon Naud is not a typical Quebec winemaker: he did not study at an elite European school, he did not inherit a château, and he did not build his brand on Instagram. He is a farmer's son who co-founded a research club, introduced Frontenac to Canada, discovered Frontenac Blanc in his own vineyard, and spent 20 years transitioning his family's farm from conventional to regenerative — a man who understands that the best wines are made by people who watch their vines daily, who taste their grapes obsessively, and who refuse to add "merde" to their wine. Steve Beauséjour's arrival in 2019 brought the natural wine expertise of Montreal's bar scene to the farm, while Véronique Lemieux's arrival in 2022 brought the scientific rigour of regenerative agriculture. Together, they have created something rare: a project where four decades of farming knowledge and cutting-edge ecological science coexist.
The future of the project is tied to the future of regenerative agriculture in cold-climate wine regions — to the growing recognition that the best wines come not from the most famous appellations but from the most committed stewards of the land. As the Les Beaux Jus Frontenac Blanc continues to introduce drinkers to the possibilities of Quebec's native grapes, as the Beau Jus Blues proves that Frontenac Noir and Gewürztraminer skins can create something greater than the sum of their parts, as the RéGénération and ÉlémenTerre wines demonstrate that regenerative farming produces wines of genuine depth and minerality, and as the research plots planted in 2022-2023 yield data that will shape the future of Quebec viticulture, La Bauge remains what the Nauds have always intended it to be: a boar farm turned regenerative vineyard on a slate ridge in the Eastern Townships — structured not by convention or technology but by sheep, ducks, alpacas, yaks, and the eternal reminder that a vineyard is not a factory but a living ecosystem, and that the wine in your glass is only as clean as the soil that produced it. The story of this winery is the story of a family who looked at a field of wild boars and saw a vineyard — and then spent 40 years proving that Quebec's most exciting wines come from the people who farm with animals, patience, and radical respect for the land.
"Farming has become extractive, almost like mining. Regenerative farming aims to reverse that."
— La Bauge Vineyard, on regenerative philosophy