The Geographer, the Sommelier & the Oak Hand
Domaine de la Chasseigne is a young oak in an ancient forest — a 3-hectare organic estate in the Coteaux du Giennois founded by Guillaume Myette in 2023, when a geographer-sommelier from Burgundy stumbled upon a small vineyard for sale in a region he had barely tasted. The name "Chasseigne" derives from the old French for oak and chestnut — the trees that surround the domaine in the village of Pougny, halfway between Sancerre and Paris. Myette, who trained as a geographer and fell in love with wine while working as a sommelier, had apprenticed with Luc Pavelot — the organic pioneer of Pernand-Vergelesses — and Pierrick Boulay in Volnay, where he discovered his passion for Pinot Noir. He searched for a domaine in Beaujolais, then Savoie, before finding La Chasseigne by chance — three hectares of organic vines on Kimmeridgian marls and flint clays, planted to Pinot Noir, Gamay, and Sauvignon Blanc. The first vintage, 2023, was made without a tractor, by hand, with a harvest that lasted six days. The 2024 vintage was lost entirely to vine diseases — a brutal baptism for a new vigneron. But the wines that emerged from that first, hard-won vintage have already found their way to Québec, imported by Agence Pirates — the agency of Joris Gutierrez Garcia, crowned Best Sommelier of the Americas in 2025. For Myette, the philosophy is simple: "un lieu (terroir), un moment (millésime)" — a place, a moment.
The Geographer, the Burgundy Apprentice & the Centre-Loire Hand
Guillaume Myette is not a man who followed the expected path. A geographer by training and a sommelier by passion, he accumulated experiences and knowledge on both sides of the Atlantic in his quest to understand wine — not merely as a beverage, but as an expression of place, time, and human craft. His journey to becoming a vigneron was neither direct nor inherited; it was earned through apprenticeship, curiosity, and the willingness to start over at forty.
Myette's formal wine education took place in Burgundy — the heartland of Pinot Noir and the spiritual home of terroir-driven viticulture. During his studies, he worked with Luc Pavelot in Pernand-Vergelesses — one of the region's pioneering organic vignerons, whose commitment to chemical-free farming and low-intervention winemaking left a deep imprint on Myette's philosophy. He then moved to Pierrick Boulay in Volnay, one of the Côte de Beaune's most respected addresses, where he fell in love with Pinot Noir — the grape that would become the emotional centre of his winemaking life. These were not casual internships; they were formative years that shaped his understanding of what great wine could be when farming was honest and the cellar stayed out of the way.
After Burgundy, Myette set out to find his own domaine. His initial search focused on the Beaujolais — the land of Gamay, where natural wine culture was vibrant and land was more accessible than in the Côte d'Or. When that proved difficult, he turned to Savoie — the Alpine region of Jacquère and Mondeuse, where a new generation of vignerons was redefining mountain wine. But neither region offered the right opportunity. Then, by chance, he discovered a small vineyard for sale in the Coteaux du Giennois — an appellation he had barely tasted, located in the Centre-Loire between Sancerre and Paris.
The domaine he found — La Chasseigne — was a 3-hectare property in the village of Pougny, already farmed organically. The name derives from the old French words for oak (chêne) and chestnut (châtaignier) — the trees that frame the vineyard and give the estate its woody, pastoral character. The vines were planted to Pinot Noir, Gamay, and Sauvignon Blanc — the three varieties permitted in the Coteaux du Giennois appellation. Myette was initially sceptical about the Sauvignon Blanc. "It's a variety that never made me vibrate," he admitted. But a tasting of the region's wines changed his mind: in this terroir, Sauvignon was less green, more fruity, more generous than the steely expressions of Sancerre or the grassy notes of Marlborough. He changed his mind — and his address.
In 2023, Myette and his family moved to Pougny during harvest. The first vintage was brutal: no tractor, manual work throughout, a harvest that lasted six days across the three hectares. The tanks filled slowly. The juice fermented. And when the wines were bottled, they carried the unmistakable imprint of a man who had learned from Pavelot and Boulay, who understood soil and climate from his training as a geographer, and who had bet everything on a small organic vineyard in a forgotten corner of the Loire. But the ordeal was not over: in 2024, the entire crop was lost to vine diseases — mildew and rot that devastated the young estate. "You only get one chance to make your first wine," Myette said. "I wanted it to be good." It was. And despite the 2024 setback, the future of La Chasseigne is already being written — one hectare, one vintage, one cuvée at a time.
Pougny, the Coteaux du Giennois & the Kimmeridgian Hand
The Coteaux du Giennois is one of the smallest and least-known appellations in the Loire Valley — a 233-hectare strip of vineyards between Gien and Cosne-sur-Loire, just north of the famous Sancerre and Pouilly-Fumé. It received AOC status only in 1998, making it a relative newcomer to the French appellation system, but its viticultural history stretches back to the 2nd century — when Roman settlers first planted vines on these hillsides. In the 800s, vineyards here were given as gifts by the French royal court, and with the establishment of monasteries in the Middle Ages, viticulture flourished. The cold continental influence from the east is tempered by the Loire River, creating a microclimate that preserves acidity while allowing full phenolic ripeness.
Myette himself admits that before discovering La Chasseigne, he had tasted only one or two wines from the region. What changed his mind was the complexity of the soils — a revelation for a trained geographer. The vineyards of Pougny sit on a fascinating geological mosaic: Kimmeridgian marls — the same ancient limestone-clay formation that underpins the great vineyards of Chablis and Sancerre — mixed with flint clays (argiles à silex) that lend a smoky, mineral edge to the wines. The soils are a mix of 50% silex from the town of Saint-Père, 30% limestone, and 20% clay from Pougny — a combination that gives the wines a striking mineral backbone and a freshness that belies the region's southerly latitude within the Centre-Loire.
The three hectares of Domaine de la Chasseigne are planted to the three varieties permitted in the appellation: Pinot Noir, Gamay, and Sauvignon Blanc. The Pinot Noir and Gamay are often blended — as is traditional in the Coteaux du Giennois — to produce reds and rosés of finesse and fruit. The Sauvignon Blanc, which Myette initially resisted, has proven to be a revelation in this terroir: less herbaceous than Sancerre, more generous and fruity, with a mineral tension that speaks of the Kimmeridgian marls beneath. The vines are farmed organically — no synthetic chemicals, no herbicides, no shortcuts — and the work is done largely by hand, without a tractor, in the old-fashioned manner that Myette learned from his mentors in Burgundy.
Pougny is a small village in the Coteaux du Giennois, nestled among oak and chestnut forests that give Domaine de la Chasseigne its name. It is a quiet, rural place — not a wine tourism destination, but a working agricultural community where the rhythms of the land dictate the calendar. For Guillaume Myette, Pougny is not merely an address but a home: he moved his family here during harvest in 2023, and they have become part of the village's fabric. The domaine sits at 3 rue des Rompis — a modest street that leads to the cellar, the vines, and the future of a young estate that is already making waves far beyond its size.
The Coteaux du Giennois is one of the smallest appellations in the Loire Valley — just 233 hectares between Gien and Cosne-sur-Loire, north of Sancerre. It received AOC status only in 1998, but its viticultural history dates back to the 2nd century. The wines are less famous than those of Sancerre or Pouilly-Fumé, but they share the same Kimmeridgian limestone soils and the same potential for mineral precision. For Myette, the Coteaux du Giennois was not a compromise but a discovery — a place where Pinot Noir and Gamay could express themselves on soils as complex as those of Burgundy, and where Sauvignon Blanc could surprise even a sceptical vigneron with its generosity and fruit.
The soils of Domaine de la Chasseigne are a geographer's delight: Kimmeridgian marls — the same 155-million-year-old limestone-clay formation that underpins Chablis and Sancerre — mixed with flint clays that give the wines a smoky, mineral edge. Myette, trained as a geographer, was astonished by the complexity he found in Pougny. "I didn't know there was so much quality in the Coteaux du Giennois. I didn't know there were complex soils, Kimmeridgian marls and flint clays," he admitted. These soils give the Pinot Noir a mineral backbone and fresh acidity, the Gamay a fruity generosity with a stony undertone, and the Sauvignon Blanc a tension and complexity that transcends the variety's usual herbaceousness.
Domaine de la Chasseigne is farmed organically — no synthetic chemicals, no herbicides, no shortcuts. But what makes the farming truly distinctive is the absence of a tractor. The work is done by hand, with hoes and pruning shears, in the manner that Myette learned from Luc Pavelot in Pernand-Vergelesses. The first vintage, 2023, was harvested over six days of manual labour, without mechanised assistance. The 2024 vintage was lost entirely to vine diseases — a devastating setback that tested the young vigneron's resolve. But the commitment to organic farming remains absolute: for Myette, as for his mentors, the vineyard is not a factory but a garden, and the best wines come from vines that are tended with patience, respect, and human hands.
Indigenous Yeast, Minimal Intervention & the Geographer's Hand
Guillaume Myette's winemaking philosophy is one of restraint, patience, and terroir transparency — lessons learned from his apprenticeships in Burgundy and applied with the discipline of a man who understands that the vineyard does the work, and the cellar's job is to not ruin it. The approach is deliberately low-intervention: indigenous yeast fermentations, gentle extractions, and minimal manipulation. There are no selected yeasts, no enzymes, no fining agents, no excessive sulphur. The wines are allowed to ferment naturally, at their own pace, in stainless steel tanks or old barrels that add no wood flavour but allow slow oxidation and maturation.
The reds — blends of Pinot Noir and Gamay, as well as the pure Gamay cuvée — are fermented with indigenous yeasts, with gentle pump-overs or punch-downs to extract colour and flavour without harsh tannins. The 2023 Montbenoit, a Pinot-Gamay blend, reveals the success of this approach: a juicy attack, silky and elegant tannins, and a palate driven by ripe fruit. The Champs Galants, a Gamay-dominant blend from the same vintage, shows a different face of the terroir — violet aromas, black fruits, and spices, with a concentration that comes from severe sorting: Myette kept only the best fruit, discarding the rest, to ensure that the wine carried only the purest expression of the vineyard.
The white — Les Camus, a Sauvignon Blanc harvested a few days later than originally planned — is a revelation. Myette, who had never been moved by Sauvignon Blanc before discovering this terroir, produced a wine of remarkable fatness and texture on the palate, balanced by a jolly lemony tension and a hint of mint that adds complexity and pleasure. The later harvest date allowed the grapes to develop more phenolic ripeness, reducing the variety's characteristic greenness and amplifying its fruit. The result is a Sauvignon that drinks more like a white Burgundy than a Sancerre — generous, mineral, and alive.
What emerges from the cellar is a portfolio of striking purity and surprising sophistication for a first vintage. The Montbenoit is juicy, silky, and Pinot-dominant — a wine that makes lovers of Burgundy feel at home. The Champs Galants is spicy, violet-scented, and Gamay-forward — an expression that has nothing to do with Beaujolais Nouveau and everything to do with terroir. And the Les Camus is textured, tense, and mint-kissed — a Sauvignon Blanc that defies expectation. All three are wines of place and moment — "un lieu, un moment" — made by a geographer who understands that the best wines are not manufactured but revealed.
Indigenous Yeast, Minimal Intervention & the Geographer's Covenant
The guiding principle of La Chasseigne is that the wine has already been made by the vineyard — the vigneron's job is to protect it from excess. The organic farming provides healthy, complex grapes with indigenous yeast populations that have evolved on the estate. The gentle, low-intervention approach in the cellar preserves freshness and mineral transparency. The absence of a tractor means the vines are touched by human hands at every stage, from pruning to harvest. And the careful, vintage-by-vintage approach ensures that each cuvée is a true document of its specific parcel, its specific season, and the specific challenges faced by a young vigneron building his future. The cellar is not a laboratory but a continuation of the vineyard: a place where Guillaume Myette applies the lessons of Luc Pavelot and Pierrick Boulay to produce wines that are unmistakably, quietly, defiantly Chasseigne.
Montbenoit, Champs Galants, Les Camus & the Terroir Hand
The Domaine de la Chasseigne portfolio is a triptych of the Coteaux du Giennois — three cuvées that express the extraordinary diversity of a 3-hectare estate on Kimmeridgian marls and flint clays. The wines span Pinot Noir, Gamay, and Sauvignon Blanc — the three varieties permitted in the appellation — all united by organic farming, indigenous yeast fermentation, and a low-intervention philosophy that privileges terroir expression over stylistic consistency. Production is microscopic — the entire domaine is only 3 hectares, and the 2024 vintage was lost entirely to disease — making these wines among the most limited and sought-after from the Centre-Loire. The 2023 cuvées are already exported to Québec through Agence Pirates, the agency of Joris Gutierrez Garcia, Best Sommelier of the Americas 2025 — a testament to the quality that Myette achieved in his very first vintage, made without a tractor, by hand, in six days of harvest.
The Oak, the Tractorless Hand & the Centre-Loire Crown
Domaine de la Chasseigne is not merely a winery; it is a monument to the courage of beginning — a 3-hectare organic estate in a forgotten corner of the Loire, founded by a geographer-sommelier who apprenticed with Burgundy's organic pioneers and who bet everything on a vineyard he had never heard of, in a region he had barely tasted, on soils he did not know existed. In an era when the wine world is obsessed with famous appellations, inherited estates, and speculative pricing, Guillaume Myette has demonstrated that the most profound wines sometimes come from 3 hectares of hand-farmed vines on Kimmeridgian marls, made without a tractor, by a man who started over at forty.
The legacy of Domaine de la Chasseigne is the legacy of the outsider's hand in a forgotten terroir. Myette did not inherit a vineyard; he found one by chance, after searching in Beaujolais and Savoie. He did not know the Coteaux du Giennois; he discovered it, soil layer by soil layer, vintage by vintage. He did not love Sauvignon Blanc; he learned to, when the Kimmeridgian marls and flint clays of Pougny revealed a side of the variety he had never encountered. And he did not give up when the 2024 vintage was lost to disease; he persisted, because "you only get one chance to make your first wine, and I wanted it to be good". The wines that have emerged from this stubbornness — the Montbenoit, the Champs Galants, the Les Camus — are already being exported to Québec by the Best Sommelier of the Americas, a validation that transcends medals and points.
The future of the project is tied to the future of small-scale, organic viticulture in forgotten appellations — to the growing recognition that the best wines come not from the most famous names but from the most committed stewards of living soil. As Montbenoit continues to prove that Pinot Noir from the Coteaux du Giennois can be a wine of genuine silkiness and Burgundian elegance, as Champs Galants demonstrates that Gamay from Kimmeridgian marls can carry violet, spice, and black fruit with surprising depth, and as Les Camus reminds the world that Sauvignon Blanc can be textured, mint-kissed, and generous when farmed organically and harvested with patience, Guillaume Myette remains what he has always intended to be: a geographer who became a sommelier who became a vigneron — structured not by inheritance or fame but by oak and chestnut trees, Kimmeridgian marls, flint clays, indigenous yeast, hand-harvested grapes, no tractor, three hectares, and the eternal reminder that the best wines are made by those who are willing to start over, to learn, and to let the terroir teach them what they did not know. The story of this estate is the story of a man who looked at a map, found a place, and decided to make it his own — one vine, one vintage, one cuvée at a time.
"Je ne savais pas qu'il y avait autant de qualité dans les Coteaux du Giennois. Je ne savais pas qu'il y avait des sols complexes, des marnes kimméridgiennes et des argiles à silex."
— Guillaume Myette, Domaine de la Chasseigne