The Son's Voice, the Chassagne Incubator & the 0.2-Bar Hand
Maison Réno is the négoce project of Réno Pacalet — son of Philippe Pacalet, one of the most revered names in natural Burgundy. Founded in 2023 at a shared winery in Chassagne-Montrachet — an incubator for young winemakers launching small-scale productions — the estate represents both a continuation and an evolution of the Pacalet philosophy. After summers in Tuscan vineyards (2014–2016), an internship with his uncle Marcel Lapierre in Morgon, a BTS in Viticulture and Oenology from Beaune (2021), and four years working alongside his father at Maison Philippe Pacalet (where he took charge of vinification and élevage monitoring), Réno stepped out on his own. His approach is clear: carefully sourced grapes from specific vineyards across the Côte de Beaune and Côte Chalonnaise, whole-cluster vinification, wild yeast fermentation, no new oak, and minimal sulphur. The wines are vibrant, precise, and immediately recognisable as kin to his father's — yet with a youthful energy all their own. The Aligoté, blended from Puligny-Montrachet and Cheilly-les-Maranges, is already a calling card: citrus, stony minerality, and a freshness that demands oysters. The reds — Auxey-Duresses, Beaune Les Beau Fougets, Mercurey — are whole-bunch, old-oak, and unapologetically alive. At barely two vintages old, Maison Réno is already one of the most exciting new addresses in natural Burgundy.
The Tuscan Summers, the Lapierre Uncle & the 2023 Leap
Réno Pacalet was born into Burgundian wine royalty — but he did not simply inherit the throne. He earned his place through a series of deliberate apprenticeships that took him from Tuscany to Morgon to the family cellar in Beaune. Between 2014 and 2016, he spent summers working in Tuscan vineyards, learning the rhythms of Italian viticulture and absorbing a different approach to Sangiovese and terroir. It was a formative experience: the Italian emphasis on drinkability, on wines made for the table rather than the trophy cabinet, would later colour his own Burgundian cuvées.
The natural wine lineage runs deep. Réno is not just the son of Philippe Pacalet; he is also the nephew of Marcel Lapierre, the legendary Morgon vigneron and godfather of natural Beaujolais. An internship with Lapierre gave Réno front-row access to the carbonic-maceration, whole-bunch, zero-sulphur approach that has defined the Pacalet family style. He watched his uncle work with Gamay in the same way his father worked with Pinot — minimal intervention, maximum terroir expression, and an unwavering belief that the yeast knows what it is doing. By the time Réno enrolled in his BTS in Viticulture and Oenology in Beaune, the philosophy was already in his bones.
In 2019, Réno joined Maison Philippe Pacalet full-time, taking charge of vinification and élevage monitoring — the most critical, detail-oriented phase of winemaking. For four years, he worked under his father's guidance, learning not just the techniques but the decision-making: when to press, when to rack, when to sulphur (rarely), and when to simply wait. In 2023, with his father's blessing and the accumulated experience of a decade in vineyards and cellars, he launched Maison Réno at a shared winery in Chassagne-Montrachet — a "motel" for young winemakers, as one critic called it, where new producers can launch small-scale productions without the overhead of their own facility. The first vintage was 2023. The second, 2024, arrived with a mildew crisis that tested every new vigneron's resolve. Réno passed.
"His style is a clear evolution of his family's wine philosophy. The wines are crafted from carefully sourced grapes across the Côte de Beaune and Côte Chalonnaise, with a focus on minimal intervention, wild yeast fermentation's, purity of fruit, no new oak, and minimal sulfur additions."
— D.Vino, on Réno Pacalet
The Chassagne Incubator, Puligny's Aligoté & the Côte Chalonnaise
Maison Réno owns no vineyards. Instead, Réno exercises the same curatorial precision that made his father's négoce legendary — sourcing grapes from specific, carefully selected parcels across the Côte de Beaune and Côte Chalonnaise. The winery itself is a shared facility in Chassagne-Montrachet, a kind of incubator where young and not-so-young winemakers can launch small-scale productions. It is a pragmatic, modern solution to Burgundy's impossible land prices: rather than buying hectares at €1 million-plus per parcel, Réno rents space, sources fruit from trusted growers, and focuses his capital on what matters: the quality of the grapes and the precision of the cellar work.
The white wine sources are deliberately spread. The Aligoté comes from two plots, 50-50: one in Puligny-Montrachet, the other in Cheilly-les-Maranges — a geographical span that gives the wine both the crystalline minerality of Puligny's limestone and the slightly richer, more savoury character of Maranges' clay. The Auxey-Duresses Blanc and Maranges Blanc extend the white range into cooler, higher-altitude terroirs. On the red side, Auxey-Duresses Rouge provides the entry point — Pinot Noir from a village that has long been a Pacalet sweet spot for freshness and value. Beaune Les Beau Fougets steps up the seriousness: bigger, weightier, more structured. And Mercurey, from the Côte Chalonnaise, brings a different register of Pinot — earthier, more rustic, but handled with the same whole-bunch, old-oak precision.
The sourcing philosophy is simple: find growers who farm well, build relationships, and accept that as a négoçant you get what the vintage gives you. The 2024 mildew crisis was a brutal lesson in this reality — sourcing sufficient quality was difficult, and the possibility of whole-cluster vinification was sometimes defined by what the grapes could deliver, not what the winemaker wanted. It is a humbling way to work, and it keeps the wines honest. There is no estate fruit to fall back on, no inherited parcels to buffer a bad year. Just Réno, his palate, and the growers he trusts.
Half of the estate's Aligoté comes from Puligny-Montrachet — one of the most prestigious white wine villages on earth, where even the Aligoté carries a limestone pedigree. The 2024 version from this side was preferred by critics for its "beautiful citrus notes and lovely stony minerality" — a wine that screams oysters and seaside lunches. The Puligny parcel gives the Aligoté its spine: chalky tension, floral lift, and a precision that belies the grape's humble reputation. When blended with the Maranges component, it becomes something greater than the sum of its parts.
The other half of the Aligoté blend comes from Cheilly-les-Maranges, at the southern end of the Côte de Beaune, where the soils are denser and the wines tend toward a richer, more clay-driven character. The 2024 from this side showed "more dense and clayish notes" — good, but different. Together with the Puligny fruit, it rounds out the wine, adding body and savoury depth to the crystalline acidity. It is a blending decision that speaks to Réno's maturity: he could have made two separate Aligotés, but instead he chose to build one wine from two terroirs, creating a more complete expression.
The Beaune Les Beau Fougets is the most serious red in the current lineup — bigger and more weighty than the Auxey-Duresses, with lovely intensity and very fine balance. Sourced from a specific climat within Beaune, this is Pinot Noir with ambition: more structure, more depth, and a longer drinking window. Winehog found it worthy of 89-90 points in the 2024 vintage, noting the tension and the way it carries its weight with grace. For a second-vintage producer, this level of quality at village-plus level is remarkable. A wine that says: the son is not merely copying the father; he is finding his own voice.
Mercurey, in the Côte Chalonnaise, gives Réno access to Pinot Noir from a different geological register — the marls and clays of the southern Côte, which produce wines of earthier, more savoury character than their northern Côte de Beaune cousins. It is a smart addition to the portfolio: a wine that offers something different from the Auxey-Duresses and Beaune bottlings, at a price point that keeps the range accessible. Handled with the same whole-bunch, old-oak, minimal-sulphur protocol, the Mercurey shows that the Pacalet method travels well beyond the family's traditional hunting grounds.
The 0.2-Bar Press, the Stainless Steel Aligoté & the Whole-Bunch Hand
The Maison Réno cellar is a study in inherited precision and youthful restraint. Réno learned from the best — his father Philippe, whose zero-sulphur, whole-bunch, old-oak approach has defined natural Burgundy for two decades; his uncle Marcel Lapierre, who proved that Gamay could be as profound as Pinot when handled with respect; and the Tuscan growers who taught him that wine is made for the table, not the tasting note. The result is a style that is unmistakably Pacalet in lineage but distinctly Réno in execution: lighter, fresher, and perhaps even more rigorously minimal than the family benchmark.
The Aligoté is the technical showpiece. Whole clusters are direct-pressed at a gentle pressure of maximum 1 bar, applied in increments of 0.2 bar, over a total pressing time of 3 to 4 hours. It is a level of gentleness that borders on the obsessive — the kind of detail that separates good Aligoté from great Aligoté. Fermentation is carried out separately for each parcel, and blending happens only after malolactic fermentation is complete. The wine is then aged 100% in stainless steel for a short 9 months — no oak, no lees stirring, no intervention. The result is a wine of crystalline purity: lemon, white flowers, crushed stone, and a saline finish that makes it one of the most exciting Aligotés in Burgundy. Critics have already called it "monumental" and "a franche réussite" — a frank success.
The reds follow the family playbook with Réno's own inflections. Whole bunches, wild yeast fermentation, no new oak, minimal sulphur. The Pinot Noir is gently extracted — not the punch-down intensity of his father's Chambolle-Musigny, but a lighter touch that preserves freshness and drinkability. The Auxey-Duresses is vinified for tension and energy: frais et léger, as one critic noted, with good mid-palate intensity and the kind of freshness that makes it irresistible young. The Beaune gets more time, more structure, and a longer ageing window. Across the range, the wines are bottled with limited but effective sulphur — enough to ensure stability, never enough to mask the fruit. It is a pragmatic approach that acknowledges the realities of négoce winemaking while staying true to the Pacalet creed.
Precision, Purity & Patience — The Réno Method
The guiding principle of Maison Réno is that great wine is made in the details. For the Aligoté, that means pressing whole clusters at 0.2-bar increments over four hours, fermenting each parcel separately, blending only after malo, and ageing in stainless steel for nine months. No oak, no bâtonnage, no shortcuts. For the reds, it means whole-bunch fermentation in old barrels, wild yeast, gentle extraction, and minimal sulphur. Réno uses no new oak across the entire range — the wines speak of terroir, not toast. The result is a portfolio of vibrant, elegant, precisely made wines that honour the Pacalet legacy while carving out a space that is unmistakably his own. Young, fresh, and rigorously natural.
Aligoté, Auxey-Duresses, Beaune & the Frais et Léger Hand
The Maison Réno portfolio is young, tight, and deliberately focused — a handful of cuvées that cover the essential ground of the Côte de Beaune and Côte Chalonnaise without spreading too thin. The whites centre on Aligoté and Chardonnay from Auxey-Duresses and Maranges; the reds on Pinot Noir from Auxey-Duresses, Beaune, and Mercurey. All are whole-cluster where possible, all are wild-fermented, all see no new oak, and all are bottled with minimal sulphur. Production is tiny — this is a side project born from a day job — and allocations move quickly through specialist importers in France, the UK, the US, and Asia.
The Father's Shadow, the Son's Light & the 2023 Beginning
Maison Réno is, in one sense, a family inheritance — the son of Philippe Pacalet, nephew of Marcel Lapierre, carrying forward one of the most respected names in natural Burgundy. But in another, more important sense, it is something new. Réno did not simply step into his father's cellar and continue the work; he spent a decade learning elsewhere — Tuscany, Morgon, Beaune — before launching his own project at a shared winery, with no inherited land, no established reputation, and no safety net. The 2023 vintage was his opening statement. The 2024 vintage, forged through a mildew crisis that tested every négoçant's resolve, was his proof of resilience.
The project is also a generational shift. Where Philippe Pacalet built his reputation on almost 30 appellations and a near-mythical zero-sulphur discipline, Réno has chosen a tighter focus: a handful of cuvées, a smaller geographic footprint, and a style that is perhaps even more rigorously minimal. The stainless-steel Aligoté, the 0.2-bar press increments, the deliberate absence of new oak — these are not rebellions against his father's methods but refinements of them, made possible by a younger winemaker's energy and a smaller scale's flexibility. The wines are vibrant, precise, and unmistakably of their moment.
The future is one of steady, careful expansion. New cuvées will emerge as Réno builds relationships with growers and finds parcels that speak to him. The production will remain small — this is a young man's side project, not a corporate operation — and the quality will remain high, because Réno has too much pride and too much lineage to let it slip. From the shared winery in Chassagne-Montrachet, through the Puligny Aligoté and the Beaune Pinot, Maison Réno is writing the first chapter of what promises to be a long and fascinating story. The son has stepped out of the shadow. And the light, it turns out, is very much his own.
"The wines are vibrant, with a special mention for the Aligoté, which will certainly leave an impression!"
— Avintures, on Maison Réno