Domaine Chapel is a Beaujolais estate founded by Michele and David Chapel in 2016.

David and Michele met in 2013 when Michele, former dining room director and sommelier at the famous restaurant Chef's Table at Brooklyn Fare, in Brooklyn, New York, came to taste Beaujolais.
At the time, David, son of 3 Michelin star chef Alain Chapel, worked in the vineyards and cellar at Domaine Lapierre. It was David who took care of the tasting and later he followed Michele to New York where the couple lived for two years. In 2015, they made the decision to move to Beaujolais, move forward and establish their own estate. The rest, as they say, is history.
Today, the Chapels own 7.5 hectares of vines on the hillsides of Beaujolais, divided between the Chiroubles and Fleurie crus and their village of Régnié.

The Chapels work all their plots by hand. Rooted in a deep commitment to the natural environment and soil health, their agro-ecological approach to farming thoughtfully integrates plants and animals into the vineyard. As such, a walk through their vineyards will regularly result in encounters with a multitude of plant life
and animal.
In the cellar, the Chapels partly use the principles and technique of Beaujolais winemaker Jules Chauvet. Their goal is to ensure that their wines carry all the vitality of the vineyard in the bottle.

OUR APPROACH

Viticulture

The Chapels are committed to sustainable land management in Beaujolais. As such, they deliberately sought out often forgotten plots on historic hillsides. Their objective is to give new impetus to these plots.
Due to the steep slopes in Chiroubles, Fleurie, the soils are cultivated manually, with horses, winches and pickaxes. These are artisanal and ancestral methods. This also includes the co-planting of fruit trees, and the spraying of herbal teas to stimulate the fertility of the vines and the soil.
Just after the harvest, they welcome sheep into the vines on all their plots. In addition to providing pleasant company during winter work, sheep help maintain healthy soil and provide natural fertilizer for cover crops sown in the rows.

Winemaking

Wine will have a soul if it comes from a land that is alive. In a vineyard, everything is connected — below and above. When you respect this ecosystem, you take a first step towards making a wine with soul.
During vatting, the whole clusters are left intact and undergo semi-carbonic maceration using native yeasts. Protected by carbon dioxide, the grapes ferment for two to three weeks in vats.
Fermentation is carefully monitored and tasted daily to determine the day of pressing. The taffy juices are separated from the press juices. A blend is then made according to the progress of the fermentation.
The wines will return to vats and sometimes complete their fermentation the following spring when temperatures gradually increase. The wines are racked one month before bottling, unfined and unfiltered.
Each year, the Chapels upgrade the breeding by adding aging vats, notably stoneware jars.