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Jura, France

Les Pieds sur Terre

Valentin

It is in the heart of the village of Poligny, in the Jura, known as much for its Comtés as for its wines, that Valentin Morel's cellar is located, of the aptly named Domaine Les Pieds sur Terre. Having taken over the reins of the family vineyards in 2014, the young Valentin is devoting himself with passion and dedication to this new destiny with already impressive results...

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Les Pieds sur Terre at a glance

CountryFrance
RegionJura
VillagePoligny
Cultivated grapesSavagnin, Chardonnay, Trousseau, Poulsard
First vintage2014
Size6 hectares
CertificationOrganic agriculture (AB)
Our favoritesChardonnay Champ d'Aubert, Bulle Tragique

Natural wine in Comté country

With a master's degree in international law in hand, and after a few years working in a prefecture, Valentin decided to return to his winegrowing roots, carried away by his readings of the great masters of agricultural thought. Rudolf Steiner, visionary biodynamist, Masanobu Fukuoka, Japanese farmer and leader of natural agriculture, or Matthew B. Crawford and his praise of manual labour. After a formative period in Alsace with the no less influential Pierre Frick and Bruno Schueller, he returned to Poligny in 2014 and began to take over the family estate, which he renamed Les Pieds sur Terre.

Valentin's grandfather, who ran a sawmill in the village, had planted around ten hectares of vines on the hillsides of the commune, back in the 1970s, with his son Jean-Luc. Plots such as Trouillots, facing south, with its rich soil of red and grey marl, Saint-Savin and its limestone scree or Les Frins from which the Chardonnay of the crémant is made.

Although they sold the grapes to the cooperative until 1985, they then started to make their own wine, and gained a reputation in the region and beyond for their vins jaunes, macvins and other local specialities.

Very involved in the regional farmers' confederation, and increasingly aware of the environmental and health issues surrounding the winegrowing profession, Jean-Luc stopped using herbicides as early as 1999, favouring soil cultivation throughout the estate. The foundations had been laid, and when Valentin arrived in 2014, it was only natural that he converted the estate to organic and biodynamic farming.

With the certification in hand, Valentin continues to go even further than the requirements of the label, in the vineyard and especially in the cellar where all the wines are vinified naturally, without inputs and with the lowest possible doses of sulphur and only when necessary.

Very committed to current climatic issues, Valentin has been planting hybrid grape varieties for several years now, which are more resistant to spring frosts in particular, and is still experimenting in order to prepare for the uncertain future that hangs over viticulture as we know it today...

Les Pieds sur Terre - the complete range

Les Pieds sur Terre

The name chosen by Valentin for his domain originates from the airwaves of France Culture radio, where the eponymous programme gives the floor to speakers every day for half an hour, without any comment. True stories, reports, first-person accounts...

Valentin, for his part, lets his grape varieties express themselves freely, through his wines, "without any comment", accompanying them rather than guiding them, and it is this philosophy that he wished to emphasise through his choice of name. Another analogy is that of the vines, which are anchored to the earth forever, a direct link between the terroir and its liquid expression to which Valentin gives life.

The village of Poligny, France

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