While the rest of Bordeaux was bulldozing and spraying their way to modernity after World War II, the Amoreau family kept doing what they'd done for 400 years: farming without chemicals. Just vines, draught horses, bees, and the kind of polyculture that makes true biodynamic farming possible.

This isn't your typical Bordeaux estate of endless vines. Le Puy maintains 150 acres of forests, fig trees, hazelnut groves, and beehives alongside their vineyards. Why? Because as Jean-Pierre Amoreau explains, “When you work in a monoculture, you end up with more parasites than predators. The wild areas have more predators. You have to have wild areas around the vines to maintain a balance.”

The Duc des Nauves comes from a neighboring vineyard the family acquired, sitting at 80 meters elevation on the same magical Astéries limestone that defines St.-Émilion's greatest sites. They farm it exactly like their home vineyard: horses instead of tractors to keep the soil alive and fluffy, indigenous yeasts only, no sulfur until bottling, no filtration, no manipulation.

The winemaking reads like a manifesto against modern Bordeaux: hand-harvested,
destemmed, fermented in small cement vats with wild yeasts, aged 12 months without any new oak influence or sulfur until bottling. As Harold Langlais, their associate winemaker, puts it: “We prefer infusion to extraction.”

The result? Wine that Jane Anson of Decanter called “revolutionary”: so different from their neighbors that they've actually applied to create their own single-vineyard, biodynamic appellation. Meanwhile, they bottle this as humble Vin de France because they refuse to follow the AOC rules that would compromise their principles.

WHY YOU'LL LOVE IT

• Digestibility: This is what French wine lovers mean by "digestibilité"—wine that refreshes rather than fatigues. You can split a bottle and feel energized, not sluggish, because this wine drinks like a cross between St. Émilion and Beaujolais’ Fleurie.
  

• Noble Limestone: Rooted in the same Astéries limestone as St.-Émilion's $200+ bottles, but farmed naturally and priced fairly. You taste that mineral precision in every sip—black cherry and spicy plums wrapped around a truffled limestone core.
  

• No Sulfur Until Bottling: While everyone else hammers their wines with sulfur at every stage, Le Puy adds just a touch at bottling. The wine tastes alive because it is alive.
  

• The Anti-Parker Bordeaux: While critics pushed Bordeaux toward extraction and oak, Le Puy kept making wine the same way they did in 1930. Turns out they were right all along; legendary importer Neal Rosenthal championed them, and even Parker himself called them special.

HOW TO SERVE IT

• Give it 15 minutes of air to open up, then serve slightly cool at 58-62°F. This isn't your typical tannic Bordeaux that needs years to soften—it's ready to drink now, silky and approachable from day one.
  

• Perfect with roast chicken, mushroom pizza, or charcuterie. It's also so refreshing, you can drink it alone on a weeknight without food.
  

• Drink now through 2030. While it will age gracefully, why wait? This is joyful Bordeaux meant for immediate pleasure.