Hugo and Talloulah Mathurin created in 2020 the Domaine de Cassiopée, or 5.3 hectares around Sampigny-lès-Maranges (Saône-et-Loire), in the south of Burgundy. In May, they will get married. In June, they will bottle their first wines.
What training do you have and how did you meet?
We are both agronomic engineers and oenologists. We met during our training in Bordeaux. Very quickly, we knew that we wanted to create a domain together.
Why settle in Burgundy?
We have no history in this region. I am from Yvelines and Talloulah from Valence. Very early on, I developed a passion for wine. When I was 14, I went to the wine merchant to choose bottles for my parents or to their cellar, rich in bordeaux. It was after our studies that we gained experience especially in Switzerland and Burgundy. And Burgundy seemed obvious to us, although we also looked in the Jura.
Was it easy to fit in?
We arrived without knowing anyone. I had sent a spontaneous application to Jean-Marc Roulot because I really liked his white burgundy. He took me on an internship. Then it took us a year to find the domain. We let two projects go before this one. Then, we ended up spotting it thanks to an ad on a website devoted to wine transactions. It was a holiday home, with a small vineyard, belonging to a Dane who fell ill.
How do you organize yourself financially when you’re 26?
In the Maranges area, a hectare costs 50,000 euros – much lower than in Côte-d’Or. Then we got aid from Europe for young farmers which corresponds to around 10% of the funding of the project. We invested all the money that we had set aside. And then we took a serious loan from Crédit Agricole …
What are your goals ?
We have century-old Aligotés – Chardonnays and Pinots Noirs that are grown organically, which seems to be the least of things to us. This winter, we pruned them both, and we realized that the surface of our operation suits us well. So, we do not want to have more vines, if it is not perhaps a small piece of premier cru maranges to give consistency to our range which includes white and red village maranges, red burgundy. and red and white Hautes-Côtes-de-Beaune. We vinify our plots separately, and we will each bottle them. We will therefore have eight vintages.
Coming here is a life project?
And even obvious. We love the diversity of our landscapes, the cool microclimate which allows us to obtain fine and digestible wines. The 2020 vintage demonstrated it to us: the low temperatures of the Maranges throughout the season allowed us to harvest later than the rest of the Côte.