Stephane Majeune is best known to be a member of the now legendary Auvergnat trio Domaine de Peyra.
At the turn of the century, Peyra, which also consisted of Jean Maupertuis and Eric Garnier, paved the way for the cadre of free thinking auteur-esque vignerons that we now associate with the Auvergne, as well as natural winemakers at large. Emblematic of the sorts of wines we take for granted these days, the Peyra trio was ahead of their time, and most palates in the late 90s and early 2000s simply couldn’t understand what their wine was about.
At some point after Peyra folded, Stephane and his wife Valérie left Clermont-Ferrand for Sens, a small city in Bourgogne-Franche-Comté in search of something more enriching, something they could call their own. They opened a humble restaurant called Mauvaises Herbes, named after the Peyra cuvée (IYKYK) which they still run today. In 2022 the pair began to buy fruit from a couple of friends in the Beaujolais (Pizay) and Ardeche (Rosières). They check in on the vineyards as often as possible, and harvest all of the fruit themselves. Like Peyra, cellar work is simple and old school; semi-carbonic macerations for the reds, and direct presses for the whites. All wines see eight to twelve months in barrique, and the results are highly drinkable wines that sing of each vintage; lifted aromatics and purity of fruit, dashes of volatility and with just the right salty mineral touch. After all of these years Stéphane—an early master—still has the touch.
