Louis Terral

Mérignat (Bugey)

« I will be a farmer for the rest of my life, it’s obvious now ». Serene and determined, Louis Terral knows where he comes from and where he is going.

After a first life in industry in which he did not manage to find meaning, Louis made a radical career change after some revealing experiences in the vineyards. He trained with Michel Guignier and Julie Balagny in the Beaujolais and Baptiste Valette in Burgundy. Masters of natural wine who introduced Louis to the benefits of biodynamic viticulture and allowed him to acquire a great sensitivity to the vine and to the world of life in general. It was finally at the age of 26 that he bought his first vines not far from Mérignat, in the small vineyard of Bugey (Ain), with a lot of foresight.

His ambition is to propose a coherent and sustainable model of polyculture that tends towards a “zero carbon” practice. The vines are therefore managed biodynamically and the soil is worked with a pickaxe and a winch. The harvest is done by hand, the fermentation is spontaneous thanks to indigenous yeasts, and the wine is made without any input, including sulphites. The result is racy, intense wines of great depth, with a touch of their mountain terroir. Louis accompanies his grapes more than he transforms them, but this does not prevent him from producing wines as he wanted them.

As proof of this, he decided to work mainly with still red wines in a wine region that produces almost exclusively sparkling and sweet rosé. As his vines are scattered over several terroirs and vary in age, Louis has chosen to vinify his plots individually and therefore has several cuvées of Gamay. Different and fine expressions of the grape variety to which is added a rare and surprising cuvée of chardonnay.

[Photo credits 2, 3, 5 : Louis Terral]