Though originally from the Yonne region in the very northwest of Burgundy, Raphaëlle Guyot didn’t set out to become a vigneronne in her place of birth. But a chance tasting of Jo Landron’s Muscadet “Amphibolite” while she was attending business school at the age of 18 was the spark that would eventually take Raphaëlle around the world to learn more about wine before finally landing back home to establish her small domaine. Geographically closer to the Loire Valley than the Côte d’Or, the Yonne is a region with a long and storied viticultural history, much of which was sadly lost to phylloxera. Luckily, thanks to young, talented growers like Raphaëlle, this region is being revived and its potential starting to be rediscovered. Raphaëlle began by interning with producers around France such as Athénaïs de Béru, Cyril Fahl, and Coralie and Damien Delecheneau before going on to receive a degree in enology at the viticultural school in Beaune. After more apprenticeships with Thibault Liger-Belair in Nuits-Saint-Georges and even spending a harvest in Georgia, Raphaëlle decided that it was time to create her own domaine, putting down literal and figurative roots in Puisaye-Forterre, located roughly halfway between Chablis and Sancerre. Here, Raphaëlle endeavors to create not just a viticultural domaine, but a full polyculture farm that integrates crop diversity and livestock in addition to the vines. Today, Raphaëlle farms just 1.75ha of vines, painstakingly rehabbing old parcels that were once completely overgrown by wild vegetation and fruit trees. With such a passion for nature, it’s no surprise that soil health is of the utmost importance. The vines are densely planted, and Raphaëlle believes that organic farming coupled with the use of selected green cover in the vineyards is the key to producing exceptional quality fruit in the future. In the cellar, a low-intervention approach is used with all native ferments and judicious use of sulfur. In addition to the small quantities of wine made from her own vines, Raphaëlle also produces a range made from purchased fruit throughout the Auxerrois, from villages such as Saint-Bris and Irancy. There is an energy, depth, and purity that creates an unmistakable link throughout all of the wines, highlighting the individual characteristics of each parcel and the deft hand at work to bring these nuances to life.