Domaine Luneau-Papin, 2025 Update
“Hey Chris, I think you have been tasting our wines since I was this high, no?”
Pierre-Marie Luneau, wearing his customary cheery grin, stretched out his hand, palm flat to the floor, to show just how high he might have been. The height he claimed suggested he must have been only six or seven years old when we first tasted together.
Pierre-Marie might have been exaggerating more than just a little. I don’t remember exactly when we first met, but I remember where; it was at the Salon des Vins de Loire, back in its heyday; he was pouring the Luneau-Papin family’s wines alongside the domaine’s patriarch, Pierre. And I recall we had an in-depth discussion about the forthcoming creation of the crus communaux zones, which dates the meeting as being prior to 2011. So while it is not true to suggest he was only seven years old when we met, it is the case that I have been meeting up with Pierre-Marie Luneau and his wife Marie to taste their wines for quite a few years now.
During that period this younger generation have taken on more and more responsibility for the domaine, and they have had sole hold of the reins here for more than a few years now (in truth, I cannot recall the last time I set eyes on Pierre Luneau-Papin, but it must have been in pre-Covid times). The challenges Pierre-Marie and Marie have faced during this time have been noteworthy, but they have proven themselves up to the task, several times over. They have undertaken a restructuring of the domaine to aid in their development of frost-resilience, and have converted the domaine to organic and then biodynamic viticulture. This latter work began as long ago as 2013, with organic certification coming in 2018, biodynamic certification just one year later.
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