Charles Soulier and Guillaume Soulier live and work in the south of France, between the Gard and the Rhone Valley. By now, they have earned an international reputation for their creative, unconventional, and often radical approaches to both viticulture and winemaking.
We visited them in February 2023 and spent an unforgettable day with Charles. We taste widely and regularly travel to different wine regions, but what we saw and experienced there was unlike anything before. Charles presented farming and vinification from an entirely new perspective, inspiring us to let go of conventions and not be afraid to think beyond established frameworks.
When tasting these wines, we try to set aside any preconceptions or fixed ideas about what natural wine should be. Instead, we give space and time to the singular vision of the Soulier brothers.
We encourage you to do the same when you open a bottle: approach it with openness, immerse yourself fully, and trust that the wine will speak to you in its own way.
The Soulier brothers come from a long line of growers. Their great-grandparents were already involved in winemaking, and their grandfather, too, worked as a vigneron before the family eventually shifted its focus to fruit growing - primarily cherries.
Their father later revived the winery in the spirit of the 1980s, reestablishing the estate with 30 hectares under chemical farming and a highly technological approach in the cellar. However, in a market where agricultural prices were continually under pressure, this model proved unsustainable, and in 2014 he was forced to declare bankruptcy.
In their early twenties at the time, Charles and Guillaume decided to take over the family legacy. Sensing the momentum of the growing organic movement, they chose a completely different path - committing themselves to organic farming and low-intervention winemaking.
Between 2012 and 2013, Charles completed internships at two highly respected estates: Mas de Daumas Gassac in Languedoc and Thibault Liger-Belair in the Côte de Nuits, Burgundy. These formative experiences played a key role in shaping his outlook.
In 2014, the brothers separated four hectares from their father’s vineyards and began the process of converting them to organic cultivation, laying the foundations for a new chapter in the family’s history.
In the early years, the Soulier brothers practiced biodynamics, but it quickly became clear to them that not every aspect of the method was essential. For Charles, the elements that often draw the most attention—herbal teas, cow horns, and special preparations - were far less important than one key principle: the presence of animals on the farm. From the outset, they committed to integrating livestock, and today the estate is home to ten goats and ten sheep, which graze in the vineyards throughout winter, alongside their former draft horse.
Initially, the horse was used for plowing. But everything shifted when Charles discovered The One-Straw Revolution by Masanobu Fukuoka. The book introduced him to permaculture, gradually transforming their entire approach to farming. Inspired, they chose to “stop farming” in the conventional sense - letting go of previous practices and the expectations of others.
The transition wasn’t without challenges. In 2019, yields collapsed due to the changes, and although production remained low (between 15–30 hl/ha), 2020 brought vindication: the harvest was more abundant and far healthier than any before.
Previously, they had used seeded row spacings, but now they trust that nature will eventually dominate, allowing cover crops to flourish and fostering a richer, more diverse vineyard flora. Instead of plowing, they apply compost, manure, and wood chips directly to the vineyard, increasing organic matter while helping to suppress competing weeds around young vines. In vineyard blocks surrounded by trees, fallen branches and leaves are left in place, naturally forming a protective litter layer that nurtures soil life.
In the cellar, grape processing remains deliberately hands-on. Pressing is done with an old manual basket press, with frequent breaking and loosening of the press cake to ensure gentle extraction. No pumps are used - everything moves by gravity, preserving the integrity of the fruit.
The Soulier brothers drew inspiration from many mentors as they developed their own style. In their early years, they produced more classic, high-extraction reds. Influenced by neighbors Valentin Valles and Eric Pfifferling of L'Anglore, they shifted toward lighter, direct-press wines and carbonic maceration techniques.
In recent years, inspired by Hans-Peter Schmidt from Mytophia in Valais, Switzerland, they have explored oxidative, often blanc-de-noirs–style wines that undergo longer aging. Practically, this means they no longer “top up” barrels during maturation, allowing their wines in oak to develop naturally under a protective layer of native yeast.
The Soulier brothers also recognized that several of their grape varieties are more delicate than typical Rhône grapes, and their winemaking had to respect this nuance. Inspired by L’Anglore, they set out to create a true Tavel-style rosé, experimenting with a short maceration of Grenache. They were so impressed with the results that they gradually shortened maceration times across the board - by 2020, about a third of their wines were made entirely by direct pressing. This approach gave rise to their now-signature blanc-de-noirs.
For wines not following this lighter style, maceration is much longer - up to six months. Grapes are left whole in stainless steel tanks, undergoing carbonic fermentation naturally, with CO₂ added only to complete the process.
The brothers have completely eliminated sulfur from their winemaking, seeing it as incompatible with their goal of producing wines that are vibrant, expressive, and as free as possible.
What are the wines like? They challenge expectations, pushing us out of our comfort zone. They are alive with energy, vibrant and expressive, capturing the very essence of the natural processes that shape them.
In short: PURE JUICE.
