Description
Wine Details – Anders Frederik Steen & Anne Bruun Blauert “Inside I’m a boat built of paper”
Alcohol Grade: 14.25%
Aging/ Vinification: A beautiful expression of the old vines of Grenache at Le Mazel, which were planted in 1956. The majority of the grapes were pressed directly to cuve, whilst a proportion of destemmed grapes were added and left to infuse for around a month. Finally, the wine was moved to old barriques for two years of elévage.
Best to have it: 12-14ºC
Size: 750 ml
The Producers: Anders Frederik Steen & Anne Bruun Blauert
(Valvignères, Ardèche, France)
This is not your average French estate story—it’s a manifesto for freedom in a bottle, led by Danish transplants Anders and Anne. Anders, the sommelier turned winemaker, cut his teeth at the culinary temples of Copenhagen like Noma and Relæ, where he established one of the first 100% natural wine lists. This deep background in gastronomy informs their entire approach: they treat winemaking like intuitive cooking, adapting to the “produce” of the vintage rather than sticking to a rigid recipe. They settled in the sun-drenched Ardèche, working organically on clay, limestone, and volcanic soils. They source grapes from friends like the Oustric family at Domaine Le Mazel and Laurent Bannwarth in Alsace, while also farming their own small plots. Their dedication is to zero-additive, nothing-removed natural wine, even developing an impressive sulfur-free vineyard spray to manage diseases.
What makes them truly relevant is their radical, anti-dogmatic rule: they never repeat a wine. Every single cuvée is a one-off experiment—a different blend, a new technique, a unique vessel. The wines, which often carry poetic or cheeky titles like song lyrics, are incredibly sought-after because they are an ephemeral snapshot of a moment in time and terroir. Many of their whites and blends also feature a distinctive, intentional oxidative style, resulting in complex, nutty, and savory natural wines with an incredible texture and vibrant energy. Anders and Anne are not just winemakers; they are pioneers who have become iconic figures in the global natural wine scene, proving that the greatest wine is often the one that embraces the unexpected.
