François Saint-Lô
François was born in Normandy and does not come from a wine producing family. After many years of travel followed by working for Oliver Cousin and Clos Cristal he bought his own place in Berrie, about 25 km south of Saumur, in 2012, and subsequently made his first vintage in his own name. The place is quite literally a ruin, but has previously been used for wine production, so François is renovating the buildings step by step with the help of friends, while working in the vineyards and the cellar.
François works extremely conscientiously in the vineyards and plows his vineyards by horse. In the cellar, he still uses the basket press that is more than a hundred years old, which was there when he took over the place. He works with minimal intervention, lots of patience, no cultured yeast, fining or filtration, and zero added sulphur. François Saint-Lô’s wines are bright, extremely juicy, very convincing, and highly sought after. We are never allocated enough to be able to satisfy everyone, but if you get the chance to drink a bottle, it is almost guaranteed to bring you a great experience.
