The Feminine Hero & the Zero Pledge

The story of Zéroine is a story of roots — of a woman who grew up among vines, left for the digital world, and returned to the earth with a new understanding of what freedom and creativity mean. Maylis Bernard is the granddaughter of a vigneron from Château-Chalon, the legendary appellation in the Jura famous for its oxidative Savagnin wines. As a child, she used to help her grandfather in the vineyard; the Jura is both her roots and her heartland. But like many young people drawn to the promise of the modern economy, she spent sixteen years managing computer projects — a career that provided security but no soil, structure but no vines. The Jura was always there, in the background, a landscape she visited but did not inhabit. Until the moment came when the screen could no longer compete with the vineyard.

That moment was catalysed by her relationship with Jean-François "Fanfan" Ganevat — the iconic natural winemaker of Rotalier, whose Domaine Ganevat has become one of the most sought-after names in the natural wine world. Maylis had been attached to natural wines for a very long time, even before becoming Fanfan's partner. Her palate was already formed, her convictions already clear. But it was the proximity to Ganevat's cellar, the daily witnessing of his biodynamic farming and his uncompromising winemaking, that gave her the courage to make the leap. In 2018, she established Zéroine — a name that fuses zero (for zero additives) with heroïne (for feminine hero) — and began her first vintage as a négociant, sourcing grapes from a network of trusted biodynamic and organic growers across the Jura and beyond.

The mentorship she received was direct and invaluable. Fanfan and his sister Anne Ganevat guided her through the first steps — not as a student in a classroom, but as an apprentice in a working cellar. There is a discernible alignment in the stylistic approaches of the two houses: distinctive aromatic profiles, lively acidities, and exceptionally flavourful palates. But Maylis is not a copy of Ganevat; she is a distinct voice. Where Ganevat works with fourteen generations of family vineyards and a vast estate, Maylis works with less than one hectare of her own land and a négociant's freedom to choose. She blends her wines according to her taste and only offers cuvées that she loves — a freedom that the estate-bound vigneron does not always have. The result is a portfolio that is playful, diverse, and deeply personal.

Since bottling her inaugural vintage, Maylis has acquired exquisite small plots of land in and around the estate in La Combe de Rotalier, in the South Revermont. These acquisitions have enabled the introduction of captivating Chardonnay and Savagnin-based wines that complement the already diverse and playful range of reds sourced from further afield. The transition from pure négociant to part-domaine is a significant milestone — not a rejection of her négociant origins, but a deepening of them. She now tends her own vines with the same biodynamic care that she demands from her suppliers, and the wines carry an ever-more intimate connection to the Rotalier terroir. This is not merely a career change; it is a homecoming, a feminine hero's journey from the screen to the vine, and a rising star's proof that the Jura still has room for new voices.

The guiding philosophy of Zéroine is expressed in absolute simplicity: zero additives, zero sulfur, zero filtration, zero fining, and zero compromise on creativity. Maylis is committed to natural winemaking in its most rigorous form — employing healthy cultivation practices in the vineyard and cellar work entirely free of any intervention. This is not a reaction against modernity; it is a return to the oldest possible methodology, informed by the Ganevat family's fourteen generations of Jura winemaking and by Maylis's own conviction that the wine must be free to express itself. The wines are made without cultured yeasts, without enzymes, without tannins, without sugar, and without sulfur at any stage.

The methodology is deliberately primitive and rigorously clean. Harvest is entirely manual, carried out in small boxes across her own parcels and those of her suppliers, and transported immediately to the cellar in Rotalier. Fermentation is spontaneous, initiated by the indigenous yeasts that live on the grape skins and in the cellar air. For the red wines, Maylis employs semi-carbonic maceration in open-top, tronconic wooden vats — a technique that produces wines of vibrant fruit, gentle tannins, and an almost weightless energy. The maceration lasts approximately 20 days, starting with cool temperatures and gradually rising to around 14°C — a slow, patient curve that extracts colour and aroma without the aggressive tannin of conventional extraction. The white wines are direct-pressed and transferred to 500-litre demi-muids or amphorae after a gentle settling.

The commitment to zero sulfur extends to every stage: no sulfur at harvest, no sulfur during fermentation, no sulfur at bottling. The wines are not filtered. They are not fined. They are bottled as they are, with their natural sediment, their living yeasts, and their evolving character intact. This demands absolute cleanliness in the cellar, perfect grape health in the vineyard, and a willingness to accept that each bottle will be slightly different from the next. The aging is extended — whites spend one to two years in barrel or amphora, followed by at least one further year in bottle before release. The oxidative Savagnin Ju Sa Ox spends six years in barrel — two years topped up, then four years under a light veil of flor — developing the bruised apple, hazelnut, and dried citrus complexity that defines the great oxidative wines of the Jura. The Crémant spends three years on lees — far beyond the legal minimum — producing a mousse of remarkable delicacy and a palate of generous spice.

The cellar in Rotalier is not a monument to technology; it is a modest, working space where open-top wooden vats, old demi-muids, and amphorae coexist in the service of transparency. There is no temperature-controlled tank farm, no laboratory analysis dictating additions, no consultant recommending corrective enzymes. There is only Maylis, the grapes, and the patience to let the wine take the time it needs. The result is a portfolio of wines that are raw, expressive, and full of life — wines that change in the glass, that evolve in the bottle, and that carry the unmistakable signature of a woman who has spent her life in the orbit of one of France's greatest natural winemakers, but who has found her own voice in the silence of the Rotalier cellar.

To understand Zéroine, one must understand that it is not merely a winery; it is a declaration of independence, a career change at forty, and a rising star's proof that the most playful, sensitive, and free-spirited wines can emerge from a cellar built on nothing but instinct, mentorship, and the refusal to compromise. Maylis Bernard is not an heiress to a vast estate; she is a woman who spent sixteen years in computer project management, who is the granddaughter of a Château-Chalon vigneron, and who found the courage to leave the screen for the vine. The identity of the project is defined by this leap: the leap from IT to winemaking, the leap from security to creativity, the leap from the conventional to the natural, and the leap from being Fanfan Ganevat's partner to being Maylis Bernard, vigneronne in her own right.

The identity is also defined by freedom — the freedom of the négociant to choose her grapes, to blend across regions, and to create cuvées that express her personal taste rather than a family tradition or an appellation rule. Maylis does not filter because she believes the wine is complete as it is. She does not sulfite because she believes the vineyard and the cellar are clean enough to protect themselves. She does not use chemicals because she believes the future of the soil depends on its health. And she does not compromise because she believes that creativity is the only currency that matters. The result is a portfolio of wines that are deliberately alive, deliberately diverse, and deliberately challenging to the industrial norms of the wine world. They are not made to please a tasting panel; they are made to please Maylis, and by extension, those who share her taste for honesty, energy, and the unexpected.

The future of Zéroine is tied to the continued acquisition of small plots in La Combe de Rotalier, the deepening of biodynamic practices on her own land, and the gradual expansion of a portfolio that already spans white, orange, red, rosé, and sparkling from five different regions. Maylis is eager to go further — to experiment with longer macerations, to explore forgotten varieties, and to obtain ever more natural expressions from the fruit of her own Jura terroir. The oxidative wines will continue to be her passion, the long-aged whites that connect her to her grandfather's Château-Chalon legacy. The semi-carbonic reds will continue to capture the joyful energy that defines the house style. The Crémant will continue to prove that zero-addition sparkling wine can achieve remarkable complexity. And the multi-regional blends will continue to demonstrate that a négociant with integrity can produce wines as terroir-driven as any estate.

In an age of increasing industrialisation in wine — of global varieties, engineered yeasts, and corporate consolidation — Zéroine stands as a compelling alternative, not because it rejects modernity but because it has embraced a deeper modernity: one that values less than one hectare of own vines over a factory farm, hand harvest in small boxes over machine picking, indigenous yeasts over inoculation, zero sulfites over standardised stability, no filtration over cosmetic clarity, open-top wooden vats over stainless steel tanks, amphorae over enamel vats, semi-carbonic maceration over conventional extraction, the négociant's freedom over the estate's constraint, the feminine hero's intuition over the consultant's fee, and the specific voice of Maylis Bernard over the standardised replication of a global style. Zéroine is not merely making wine; it is proving that a woman can change careers at forty, that a négociant can produce wines as honest as any domaine, that a wine with zero additives can possess the most profound identity, and that the simplest philosophy — only offer cuvées that you love — is often the most profound. From the first négociant vintage in 2018 to the 2024 release in Rotalier: all united in one bottle, one feminine hero, one unanswerable argument for the possibility of authentic, natural, zero-sulfite, hand-made, passionately honest wine from the heart of the Jura and beyond.