Tailors and Gatherers - Chloé Bey & Jordan D'Osualdo

The name "Tailors and Gatherers" evokes the way we cultivate our vines. Based on the principle of non-action and wild agriculture, trees and plants find their place as companions to the vine.

We hope our wines will be imbued with this energy. We have been based in Saint-Jean-le-Vieux, in the north of Bugey, since 2021, our first vintage. Our vines are located in three very different sectors, which allows us to diversify the terroirs and altitudes, and to limit the risks linked to climatic accidents on 4 hectares of vines. Our work consists of supporting the plant and the soil without traumatizing them. We are converting to organic and biodynamic agriculture and practice biodynamics with fervor. We base our activities on the lunar calendar, produce horn dung and horn silica, and respect cosmic rhythms. The diversity of our plots is essential, which is why we have started planting fruit trees, which we will do each year by diversifying the species. The soils are always covered and are not worked. We let the grass express itself, which allows for natural soil decompaction, a wide variety of insects, fungi, and bacteria, and allows our beloved bees to forage. The grass will only be rolled after it has gone to seed, which has several advantages.

Concerning the vine, we apply physiological pruning of the vine which consists of no longer making pruning wounds on wood more than two years old, to accept and manage the elongation of the plant to allow it to make reserves, to make it resilient and more resistant. The quality of the plant material is important to have perennial vines. This is why we buy our plants from renowned nurserymen, who cultivate the plants following the principles of biodynamics, who make their own mass selections (the majority of the plants are multiplied clones), an English graft and who guarantee quality work. During the green work, we carry out strict disbudding as well as trellising. We do not carry out interventions that oxidize and stress the plant: leaf removal, untimely pruning, etc. Treatments are carried out with copper and sulfur, limiting the doses as much as possible thanks to nettle, osier, horsetail, yarrow and buckthorn herbal teas which aim to stimulate the natural defenses of the plant and limit the spread of fungal spores. The harvest is carried out manually in crates. Destemming, pressing and maceration follow, depending on each plot, the maturity of the grapes and their health. All vinification, aging and bottling are carried out without sulfur. We allow time for the wines to stabilize through aging and are very attached to pure juice wines. The bottles, sealed with cork, will rest for at least 1 month after bottling and will then be labeled, put into boxes and ready to be sold and shipped.