Ex-Nihilo

At the helm of the estate are a young couple, Morgane and Alban Desazars. Their first vintage is the recent 2023, which only hit the market at the beginning of 2025, so it's just starting to appear in the posts of wine lovers. Morgane is the daughter of a winemaker from Champagne, having worked with her father since childhood. Her father isn't ready to retire just yet, so Morgane set out to seek her own destiny—one that would allow her to have her own vineyards and winery. Alban worked for a caviar house. He is also a former rugby player. In fact, they met in Paris, where Alban was working! It was there that the idea to follow their dream was born! They studied in Dijon and then headed to Burgundy without connections, investors, or patronage. They are négociants, but Alban works in the vineyards himself. For him, it is crucial to determine the harvest date, manage their plots personally, buy grapes (not pressed must), and then choose the type of press for each parcel. Essentially, Alban first works as a hired employee for the grower for a certain fee, and then pays them for the grapes that he himself cultivated. A distinctive feature of this young estate: like many young winemakers, Morgane and Alban produce Hautes-Côtes de Beaune and Côte de Beaune wines. But already in their second vintage (2024), they produced Premier Cru wines (Meursault and Santenay), and they plan to make red wines only from Premier Cru plots. This is quite rare among the younger generation, as you know. But it was important for them to work with top-tier terroirs as well. Their style: clean, fine neoclassicism. Wines that will appeal to everyone with their minerality and nobility. Those who love a modern style will be thrilled, but they won’t disappoint those who remember Burgundy from the early 2000s either. Because, despite their finesse, the wines also have richness and creaminess—all in perfect balance. In the cellar, they use spontaneous fermentation, minimal sulfur, aging in a mix of old and new oak, and partially in steel. On average, one new barrel per cuvée, but this isn’t a hard rule—each vintage is considered separately. An interesting note: since they come from Champagne, they vinify and age the heart of the press must and the other fractions separately, assembling them in the desired proportion just before bottling. We’re hearing about this approach more and more often in Burgundy lately.