Bret Brothers

The Bret family bought the Soufrandière estate in Vinzelles, southern Mâconnais, in 1947 - their grandfather Jules Bret was a professor of medicine. Jean-Philippe and Jean-Guillaume studied oenology through the 1990s and took over in 2000, bringing the first vintage fully vinified and bottled at the estate. During their studies they practised with Dominique Lafon in Meursault and with Jean-Marie Guffens-Heynen next door in Vinzelles, where they picked up the organic and biodynamic framework. Their younger brother Marc-Antoine joined in November 2010.

There are two labels in the same cellar. Domaine La Soufrandière is the estate - 11.5 hectares of Chardonnay plus 0.30 hectare of Aligoté, centred on Pouilly-Vinzelles "Les Quarts" (4 ha) and "Les Longeays" (0.55 ha), with Mâcon-Vinzelles "Le Clos de Grand-Père", and, added in 2016, Saint-Véran "La Bonnode", two Pouilly-Fuissé parcels (Les Châtenays and Les Vigneraies), plus the Aligoté. Bret Brothers, set up in 2001, is a micro-négoce line buying standing grapes from old-vine parcels across Mâcon-Villages, Mâcon-Verzé, Viré-Clessé, Pouilly-Loché, Pouilly-Fuissé, Saint-Véran, plus a handful of Beaujolais crus and a "Bret Nat" pét-nat. The négoce fruit is harvested by the Soufrandière team and almost all bottlings carry organic certification.

Organic conversion started in 2000, Ecocert since 2003, Demeter biodynamic since 2006. In the cellar: indigenous yeasts, no new oak (barrels 6-18 years old), total SO2 between 40 and 70 mg/L, 11 months in wood at village level, 17 months for Les Longeays and Les Quarts. Across the southern Mâconnais they are consistently named alongside Guffens-Heynen / Verget, Héritiers du Comte Lafon, Valette and Ferret as the quality references of the area.