Stéphane Regnault is an aerospace engineer turned sommelier who returned to his hometown of Le Mesnil and became the first generation to vinify at his family’s Domaine. Since his return home in 2007, the property was converted to organic farming, having been certified organic in 2020. Regnault now uses a number of biodynamic preparations as well: he mentions he’s interested in practices that allow for ‘respect of the soil and living things—an ecosystem is a whole of which the vine is only a part!’. Stéphane is also a jazz saxophone musician, hence the beautiful labels: visual representations of different modes in improvisational jazz. Each evokes the tone and structure of each wine. 

MixoLydien incorporates wine from his solera system, with this release being composed of 65% base wine from 2017 and 35% reserve wine from 2014-2017 solera. Fermentation is always with native yeast, and 2017 was fermented entirely in barrel and completed malolactic. This extra brut has a dosage of only 1 g/l, disgorged in February 2023. Chardonnay is all from the single Grand Cru vineyard, Moulin, planted in the 1970s. Moulin’s has an eastern exposure, thin but richly chalky topsoil supported by grass plantings, and a subsoil of soft, fractured chalk. Vineyard work takes lunar cycle into account and plant decoctions are used for vine treatments.

Grape: Chardonnay 

Soil: Clayey Limestone with Chalk subsoil 

Viticulture: organic with some biodynamic principals