Domaine Antoine Sunier

Domaine Antoine Sunier

Domaine Antoine Sunier is a well-regarded winery located in the Beaujolais region of France. The estate is known for producing high-quality wines, particularly from the Gamay grape variety. Antoine Sunier, the winemaker, follows a natural and minimalist approach to winemaking, focusing on expressing the terroir and showcasing the true character of the grapes.

History

Antoine Sunier is one of the new generation of wine makers in Beaujolais who are beating the drum for fine quality gamay. Antoine grew up in Dijon and initially worked in telecoms before following his brother Julien Sunier into winemaking, enrolling at the Beaune wine school in 2012. By 2014 he was ready to buy a small house and winery, plus a tiny 0.8 ha of vineyard, in Regnié, which like Fleurie is one of the ten Beaujolais crus, vineyards designated outside of the standard Beaujolais classification due to their special terroirs. Adding 1.5 hectares of old vines in Morgon, and an additional parcel of old vine Regnié to the estate does little to help with availability of the precious few bottles made.

Terroir

Antoine Sunier set up shop in 2014. Antoine’s Beaujolais debut in 2014 began with two wines, one from Régnié and one from Morgon. The Régnié comes from 2.7 Ha in the lieux-dits of Les Forchets, le Potet, and Montmerond with an average vine age of 45 years, while the Morgon comes from 1.2 Ha of 60+ year old vines from Croix de Chevre in the Grand Cras. The vineyards themselves had all been extremely well maintained and farmed organically; the Régnié in “official conversion” and the Morgon certified for more than a decade.

Savoir-Faire

The winemaking starts with hand-harvesting of the grapes with careful sorting of the bunches in the vineyard. Fermentations occur using the traditional carbonic method in a closed concrete vats with no de-stemming and only including indigenous yeasts. The fermentations last between 8-15 days, at which point the grapes are pressed and flow, with the help of gravity, into a combination of 80-90% used Burgundy barrels and the balance in epoxy-lined concrete tanks. The élévage lasts 7-8 months, at which point the wines are bottled without fining and filtration and only a small addition of SO2 at the bottling.

View all Producers