*For information, visits to the cellar and tastings are possible, but only by appointment.* After a career of fifteen years in IT, my passion for wine took over. Five years of training carried out in areas of different regions and a viticulture-oenology bts in hand, Maison Chastagnol was created in May 2018 in the Drôme Provençale. With little means, I cannot buy vines or even take rents. Never mind, I join forces with two friends who cultivate vines in the Vaucluse and the Drôme to manually harvest some of their grapes. The holding of the vines is neat, the weeding is mechanical, the yields are adapted, sulfur and copper in minimal doses are used for the treatments. The vines are certified organic. The harvest dates are decided in consultation and are chosen to harvest grapes at the beginning of their full maturity in order to obtain light, fresh and “reasonably” tannic wines. Carrying out the harvest manually in small boxes is a matter of course. In addition to the careful harvesting of the grapes, it is a period of joy where the efforts of physical work are compensated by good humor, lightness, friendliness, solidarity, snacks, laughter and unforgettable moments of sharing. The harvest is then transported to a troglodyte cuvage where I rent part of the cellar from a winemaker. When the grapes enter the cellar, depending on the maturity of the stalk, they are destemmed or not. The freshness of the vats (constant temperature all year round between 10 and 12°C) allows optimal preservation of the wines. Long cold pre-fermentation macerations begin the time for the activity of the indigenous yeasts. The alcoholic fermentation does not require cooling given the characteristic of the site. Maceration times are generally quite long. Only the progress of the alcoholic fermentation and the tasting of the wines determine the devatting period. The malolactic fermentations are linked in the liquid phase after a slight heating of the tanks to around 20° to activate the bacteria. A slight sulphiting is generally carried out depending on the conditions and the vintage before bottling. Most wines are generally aged in vats, but some cuvées are aged in barrels to round off and give the tannins a patina when necessary. The vinification is gentle, neat and as natural as possible to try to produce cuvées that are precise on the fruit and without artifice. A great inertia, due to the low temperature in the cellar, allows to obtain cuvées on the freshness. No fixed process is installed and above all no standardization of wines is sought. Of course, the framework of the cuvées must be found from one year to the next, but the vintage effect is also sought after. All Maison Chastagnol wines are certified organic from the 2021 vintage. More than labels, my primary objective in making wines is above all to convey emotions. The world of natural wine embodies in my eyes many values (solidarity, conviviality, respect for life, adaptation to the elements,...) in which I find myself and I am proud to promote them.