Bruno Duchêne

Banyuls-sur-Mer, France

Bruno Duchêne founded his small domaine, covering just 4.5 hectares, in 2002 in a garage in Banyuls in Roussillon. Originally from the Loire, Bruno was a mushroom grower in his first life before moving to the Mediterranean. Today, 16 years later, Bruno and his wines are among the biggest stars of the natural wine scene in the south, and indeed in all of France. In the meantime, it has paid off that he took his time in choosing the vineyards from the beginning, selected them carefully and now has steep slopes and small terraces above Banyuls and Collioure, whose vines are all older than 50 years. These are areas that can only be cultivated by hand and with great effort. They are planted mainly with the traditional grape varieties of the south - Grenache, Carignan, Mourvèdre and Grenache Gris.

In recent years, Bruno has also started to make wine from grapes bought from winegrower friends in the area and also from different areas such as Loire or Bourgogne, from which some unique wines have resulted.
His new cellar is located within Les 9 Caves, a common space made out of an old wine cooperative where 9 winemakers make their wines in a common space, sharing all together the joy of making wine in such an incredible place like Banyuls.