Domaine Minhaé
Beaujolais, Blacé, France
 

Lan Bertrand spent 18 years working in accounting before she gave it up entirely to become a winemaker.
 

She trained at CNEAC and founded Domaine Minhaé in 2021, on land around Saint-Étienne-des-Oullières and Blacé, in the southern Beaujolais. That first year she was technically a "viticultrice", someone who grows the grapes but doesn't vinify them herself, since she was still searching for a cellar of her own to work in. By the 2022 vintage she'd found one, and became a true "vigneronne", seeing the wine through from vine to bottle for the first time.
 

Her vines span several appellations, Beaujolais, Beaujolais Villages, Moulin à Vent and Régnié, on a mix of soils from granite to alluvial deposits. Farming is organic and biodynamic in practice, though Lan is careful not to let certification checklists define her approach, focusing instead on regenerative methods, biodiversity and building resilience to a changing climate.
 

In the cellar the grapes are hand picked, fermented spontaneously in fibreglass, and left on their skins for around two weeks before ageing in a mix of steel tank and seasoned oak, bottled without fining, filtration or any additions, sulphur included. Lan also opens the domaine up for seasonal vineyard workshops, teaching visitors pruning, budding and how to judge ripeness, always finishing with a meal shared at the vines.