Camille & Mathieu Apffel Avant la Tempête 2023

Profile & Story

Mathieu Apffel, originally from the Jura, began making small quantities of wine in Savoie in 2013 and took over his own cellar and land near Saint-Baldoph in 2017; his wife Camille joined the estate in 2020. Together they farm roughly 4.5 hectares organically (in conversion, with biodynamic elements), entirely by hand. ‘Avant la Tempête’ comes from Jacquère vines 30-70 years old planted at 250-350m on clay-limestone soils rich in glacial mica-schist and quartz around Saint-Baldoph/Apremont. Mathieu vinifies by ‘infusion’ rather than extraction – whole-cluster and gentle, ‘like making tea instead of brewing coffee’ – fermenting with native yeasts in inherited stainless steel, fiberglass and barrel, unfiltered and without added sulfur. The cuvée is named for a violent 2019 hailstorm that destroyed 80% of their old Jacquère vines.