Jean-Paul Thevenet is certainly a name in everyone’s ear ever since Kermit Lynch dubbed him, together with Marcel Lapierre, Guy Breton and Jean Foillard, as Beaujolais famous “Gang of Four” in the ‘80s. The essence of their philosophy: take a step back, appreciate and cultive old vines, apply organic farming practices, avoid the use of sulphur, let natural ferments do their magic and help the terroir expressing itself through minimal intervention.
In 2007, Charly Thévenet, the latest descendant, has been producing a wine from the Régnié appellation under the name Grain et Granit. Using the same approach as his father, who continues to advocate "natural" wines, the Régnié vineyards are cultivated using organic practices with no fertilisers or pesticides.
The oldest Gamay vines are 70 years old and the soils are composed of granite with very little earth which enables the roots to reach the base rock quickly giving the wine its mineral character. This young winemaker harvests ripe, healthy grapes.
In the cellars, the vinification process is simple and involves traditional carbonic fermentation using natural yeasts. The wines are neither fined nor filtered and have only minimal sulphites added. Since 2018, father and son are making wines under the same label.