Domaine des Canailles
Beaujolais, Ternand, France
 

Simon Perot trained as a nurse before wine ever entered the picture, only switching course in his twenties when a growing passion for wine sent him back to school.
 

He completed a sales qualification in 2010, then a second diploma in viticulture and oenology, training that carried him from Anjou to Côte de Nuits alongside well known producers, then to the steep slopes of Condrieu, and finally to managing the vines at the Beaujolais viticultural college. That decade on the road led him back to southern Beaujolais, where he took over a historically organic estate and founded Domaine des Canailles in 2019, farming 6 hectares that had already been organic since 2005.
 

Simon restructured most of the vineyard onto wider rows, simplifying the equipment he needs and making room for a sharper, more considered approach to the land. The soil is worked as little as possible, left grassed and grazed by sheep over winter, with regular amendments to build resilience, and pruning kept gentle to favour steady yields over short term output.
 

In the cellar he keeps things rational: no unnecessary risks, just sound instinct built over years of watching how the granite soils of Ternand and Sainte-Paule express themselves through Gamay and Chardonnay. Each year he also puts out a small, experimental cuvée called simply "Experience", never quite the same twice.