Our Story

The following is from an interview from July 2025.

We took two years to find the location for Shuette. My wife and I searched all over Europe for the perfect spot. Our search was never about a country, region, or style. We wanted an estate with a working, healthy organic/biodynamic vineyard, with space to enrich the environment through regenerative farming practices.

France is one of the few places where you can still get fantastic terroir with attached farmland. Usually, great grape-growing areas have been totally consumed by monoculture vineyards. We selected the vineyard because of its attributes, not for the country, region, or classical wine styles.

I enjoy classic Bordeaux and think it has a place. But our mission is to ask: what would you make here if the A.O.C. never existed? So we focus on modern winemaking techniques, sustainability, and the way people want to enjoy wine today.

Shuette is in Entre-Deux-Mers, Bordeaux, and the vineyard is in one block, directly backing onto the Dordogne River. Its 40-year-old vines have always been organic and cared for by hand (something extremely rare in Bordeaux, where barely 12% of vineyards are organic today). The wide and deep tidal river is responsible for both the fertile clay and mineral schist soil, but also the significant diurnal temperature change we experience. In summer, our vines are cooled by morning fog, extending our growing season for better maturity and acidity.

Today we grow nine grape varieties, including: Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, Chenin Blanc, Souvignier Gris (PiWi), Sauvignon Blanc, Cabernet Franc, Malbec, Petit Verdot, and Sémillon, with 4.5ha under plantation (producing about 16,000 bottles per year) and a total of 12ha of farmland.

At Shuette we follow regenerative farming principles that encompass organic farming with biodynamic practices, agroforestry, wildlife preservation, and diversification. For example, we have over 250 fruit trees planted through and around the vineyard, each with its own bird box and wild border, integrating diversity into our land.

We never select a cuvée before our maturity tests start in August. For me, it’s not until you see the colour, smell the aromas, and taste the juice that you can say what that plot should become. In this way, we adapt the style of wine to the produce rather than trying to force it to be something else.

In general, we only use the free-run juice for our wine and employ no mechanical pressing. (The pressed juice  - about 20% - is used to produce brandy for other projects like our Umeshu.) We use techniques such as maceration time, oxidation, lees contact, and flor aging to support the natural fruit-forward flavour of our wines.

This  creates a range of lighter, brighter, fruit forward wines than are unusual for the region. For example Solis is a dark rose that is made by destemming Merlot grapes and allowing the weight of the berries to press themselves. We continually rack the juice over 8 hours, allowing the must to filter naturally through the skins picking up some extra colour and aromas of cranberry and raspberry. The must is spontaneously fermented, allowed to go through malolactic fermentation and then aged with the lees for 7 months in stainless steel.   

Our 2024 orange wine (50% Sauvignon blanc and 50% Sémillon)was also destemmed and gravity pressed. The skins macerate with the wine for a month, during which time we perform daily pour overs (rather than rough punchdowns) to gently extract colour and aromas, rather than harsh tannin. Regular battonage builds more body and a week of post fermentation oxidation rounds the fruit character. Currently it is aging under flor to develop the aromas. 

In the cellar, we use a mixture of 500L neutral oak barrels, concrete tanks, and stainless steel to ferment and age the wines. We’ve always made natural wine, but since 2024 we have moved to a zero-zero approach and therefore do not add any sulphites, and our wines are not filtered.

We launched our first cuvée in September last year and have been attending wine fairs since November, meeting a lot of consumers and buyers who are really excited to see a project like ours in Bordeaux.

There are roughly 7,000 wineries in Bordeaux, and currently only about 53 of them produce some natural wine. However, they predominantly make traditional Bordeaux red wine with reduced sulphites, possibly aged in a neutral vessel. Whilst it’s great to see, for me, that does not go far enough to showcase what the Bordeaux terroir can produce and respond to what consumers want. 

We often use the tagline “Not your grandad’s Bordeaux” to help describe our wine style to consumers. Last year we made a rosé pét-nat, semi-carbonic Merlot, and an orange wine (amongst others) that are all totally atypical for the region, but I think are all delicious, modern, and interesting to consumers.

People often ask me what our neighbours think about us. The honest answer is: I don’t know - and that’s okay. We’re focused on what we believe in. 

I hope that Shuette will demonstrate that our modern, unfettered approach to winemaking and regenerative agriculture can be sustainable and good for the environment, while creating tasty wine that adds to the region’s repertoire.

I’m excited to see new, young winemakers coming into the region, taking advantage of lower land prices to start their journey. But more needs to happen today to support quality organic growers. I’ve spoken to many growers returning to conventional methods or pulling up their vineyards altogether because the cost of farming organically is too high versus the support they receive.

To support organic growers in the region, Shuette has launched a négoce, and from 2025 we will buy grapes from great organic growers to make 28,000 bottles of still and pet-nat wine under the Shuette brand that have the same qualities as our grower wines. Because of scale, we will be able to make them available at a much lower price allowing more people to enjoy modern Bordeaux wine. We call this project Renegades, as that is what we think these amazing organic growers in the region are.

In order for the new wave of natural winemakers to be successful, we really need buyers and influencers to look beyond the history of Bordeaux and support the growers and producers of modern Bordeaux wine.