Young Shoots Growing in Beaujolais: Domaine de Jeunes Pousses
This unique project is nurturing the next generation of French winemakers.
Climate change, tariffs, a decline in overall wine consumption but especially among younger people. To put it flatly, things do not look good for the wine industry. Now add to this the gloomy news that there aren’t enough young people making wine in France.
With the French government paying farmers to pull up their vines because of a massive surplus of wine in the country, the industry in France is facing the same reckoning as in California and other regions around the world. And just like the wine industry blames the “crisis” on young people for not drinking enough wine, apparently it’s now blaming them for not making it either.
But as Jason Wilson at Everyday Drinking has written about for years now, there is a major disconnect here. It’s the wine industry’s reliance on the sales of cheap, low-quality wines that is driving its decline. Young people are indeed drinking less wine—but they’re spending more on quality wines made by smaller producers.
And there are young people who want to make wine in France—they just aren’t interested in making cheap, industrial plonk. Despite the often daunting economics of owning a vineyard, they’re passionate about crafting wines of place with organic grape growing and low-intervention winemaking. I met some of those young winemakers this summer, at a very unique winery based in Beaujolais.
Late one afternoon this June, I drove to Domaine des Jeunes Pousses in the village of Emeringes, near Chénas. This domaine is the project of vigneron Thibault Liger-Belair and investor Ivan Massonnat. In 2019 they launched it as a talent incubator for young winemakers in Beaujolais, on five hectares of vineyards purchased in 2015 and converted to organic. The project gives successive “generations” of winemakers full control of the domaine for a period of three years, to run the administration of the estate, farm the grapes, and vinify and sell the wine before transferring it to the next crop of jeunes pousses (“young shoots”). Each generation is responsible for every aspect of running the domaine, down to designing the labels for their bottles.
The first generation of winemakers was Hugo Foizel and Angela Quiblier, who have gone on to start their own domaine, OBORA, based in Chénas in Beaujolais. I visited Domaine des Jeunes Pousses just as the third generation of winemakers, Naïs Lombard and Olivier Cossec, was taking over operations from the second generation, Thaïs Lamy and Juliette Lumeau.
Naïs received a degree in viticulture and oenology in Montpellier before apprenticing at Château Fontvert in Luberon. Olivier studied wine business and had a sales internship at Château Fontvert, where he met Naïs and was inspired to turn to the production side of wine. Together they went on to work in the Loire Valley and New Zealand. They followed the progress of Domaine des Jeunes Pousses since the first generation, Hugo and Angela, were in residence, thinking that one day they could apply for the project. They did so earlier this year, and were accepted as the third generation. They will be in residence until 2028.
They fit a very particular profile that the project seeks: someone with enough experience to run an entire estate, who is early in their winemaking career and will benefit from the experience, but who will also embrace their role as a steward for the next generation. Importantly, they are not inheriting vineyards or a winery from parents or grandparents.
“In this project you work for yourself, for your future, but you also work for a future generation,” Thaïs, from the second generation, explained. “You have to have a willingness to pursue the adventure for the new generation that will arrive.”
But in a way, this arrangement is liberating, too. “You can really put your personality in your wines, and because they are the first vintages of your life, you’re less afraid to make mistakes,” she said.
Thaïs studied agriculture and food science in Lyon and interned at various estates, including two years at Domaine Dujac. She met Juliette while studying in Angers, and they took over from the first generation in 2022.
The group took me on a quick tour of the tidy little cellar, with its bright blue doors and beamed ceiling. Jojo, the winery tabby cat, darted past the door. “There goes the winemaker!” Olivier joked.
We sat on a picnic table outside of the domaine’s house and tasted two of the second generation’s cuvées, from the 2023 harvest. The wines have a remarkable freshness from predominantly clay soils—quite distinct from any other gamay I tried during my visit to Beaujolais, with its granite soils that dominate the crus. The wines are labelled Beaujolais-Villages, an appellation with a lot of potential for young winemakers for its low cost per hectare and its less restrictive winemaking relative to the Beaujolais crus.
The domaine also purchases grapes from their neighbor above and behind the winery, who are one of only three organic grape growers in the village (including Domaine des Jeunes Pousses). These grapes go into a bottling called “Au Dessus da la Maison,” meaning “from behind the house.” With a slight change in elevation of about 80 to 100 meters, the Au Dessus is more lifted and perfumed.
The project just launched a new partnership with a nearby landowner to convert another plot of vines to organic—a collaboration that the young vignerons consider a victory, knowing that even just one hectare more will be saved. And the domaine recently planted chardonnay, pinot gris, and riesling, in an effort to increase biodiversity in Beaujolais, which is practically a monoculture of gamay at 96 percent of all plantings.
As the sun set, we sipped the wines and chatted about the decline of wine consumption in both France and the U.S., the role of context in tasting wines, and about sharing a moment over wine or “moments de partage,” a phrase that came up more than once in my discussions with vignerons while in France. Naïs and Olivier said that their goal as winemakers is to make an approachable, affordable wine that people will want to drink together, in a moment de partage.
Thaïs was staying through July to ensure a smooth transition from the second to the third generations by sharing detailed knowledge of everything from characteristics unique to the parcel, to quirks of the equipment, to taking over administrative tasks. There is a concept in French winemaking called “transmission,” the transfer of winemaking knowledge from one generation to the next. It happens on an accelerated, three-year cycle here at Domaine des Jeunes Pousses, before the “young shoots” go off on their next winemaking endeavor.
Thaïs will be harvesting and vinifying in Touraine this fall, and contemplating a future in the Loire Valley, Ardèche, the south of Beaujolais, or maybe even Burgundy. Juliette is on to a new project, planting hybrid vines on 7 hectares in Brittany. But Naïs pointed out that Thaïs and Juliette would still be at the domaine for a bit longer, in the form of their last harvest in the cellar, as Naïs and Olivier start their own chapter at Domaine des Jeunes Pousses.
These winemakers—who are producing quality wines, made transparently, that showcase terroir—are ones to watch in the future. As consumers and as those working in the industry, we need to support young vignerons like them who are making exactly the kinds of wines that younger people want to drink. And those with means looking for an investment opportunity in wine should consider creative structures that support these small, independent producers. The industry’s survival depends on it.