Maxim Lannay and Isabelle Delahaye farm around a hectare of biodynamic vines scattered through Arbois, Montigny-les-Arsures, Pupillin and Montmarin, bottling pure, energetic Jura with nothing added.
Maxim Lannay didn't come from a winemaking family. By a quiet coincidence he was once a school student of Raphaël Monnier, better known today as the vigneron behind Ratapoil. An interest in viticulture took him to Domaine Villet, one of the forerunners of biodynamic farming in the Jura, then to two years in the cellar of Alice Bouvot at the legendary Domaine de l'Octavin, where he learned the finer points of vinification.
He started the domaine in 2017 and was joined a year later by his wife Isabelle Delahaye, a former sommelier who had worked in some of France's most respected wine houses and was introduced to Maxim by Alice Bouvot herself. Together they work roughly a hectare of vines dotted between Arbois, Montigny-les-Arsures, Pupillin and Montmarin, growing savagnin, ploussard, seibel (a hybrid), pinot noir and gamay.
In 2020 they launched a small négociant line under the Les Barbatruks label, named after a French cartoon, to help fund new projects and offset the small surfaces and capricious climate of the Jura. The grapes come from trusted biodynamic friends in the Rhône, Alsace, Languedoc and Roussillon, and the cuvées change every year. The idea, always, is pure wine with energetic verve that is very easy to drink.
In the vineyard, in the cellar
- 01Biodynamic farming throughout the estate. Hand harvest, fruit sorted in the vineyard.
- 02Old-school manual vertical press, long gentle pressings for lightly extracted juice.
- 03Wild-yeast fermentations, élevage in fiberglass and stainless. Gravity bottling.
- 04Nothing added: no fining, no filtration, no sulfites. Every step done by hand.
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