Sextant Wine

So what does négoce actually mean, and why does it matter here? A négociant is a winemaker who buys grapes, or sometimes juice, from other growers, rather than owning and farming every vineyard. It is an old Burgundian tradition, historically a way for talented cellar hands without family land to make wine of their own. That is exactly the door it opened for Julien.

There is an old snobbery that négoce wines are lesser, blended commercial products. Sextant blows that idea apart. Julien is fussy about his sources, buying only from farmers who work their vines cleanly, with the same respect for the soil that he demands at the domaine. Once the fruit arrives, it is treated identically to the estate wines. Spontaneous fermentation with native yeasts, no additives to speak of, and a very light touch with sulphur.

The advantage of the model is reach. Freed from the tiny footprint of the family holdings, Julien can source Chardonnay, Aligoté, Pinot Noir and even Gamay from across the region, and turn out a much broader, more adventurous range. This is where his imagination runs loose, with orange wines, pét-nats and oddball blends sitting beside classic village bottlings.

It also keeps things honest on price. Buying grapes cleverly means Sextant can offer real Burgundy, made with real care, at numbers that estate wines simply cannot match. For drinkers, that is the whole appeal. The same natural winemaking that goes into the prestigious Derain cellar, poured into bottles you can actually afford to open on a Tuesday.

Burgundy has a reputation, largely deserved, for being eye-wateringly expensive. It is the priciest fine wine region on earth, and natural Burgundy is rarer and more sought after still, which usually pushes the cost higher, not lower. That is what makes Sextant such a gift. Julien Altaber makes some of the most affordable natural Burgundy you will find anywhere.

The entry point is remarkable. Sextant's Metisse, a juicy, gluggable Gamay, has landed under 16 euros, which for handmade natural wine from this region is almost unheard of. Not far above it sit wines like the Skinbull and Ecume, a lightly cloudy Aligoté and a Pinot and Aligoté pét-nat, both around 20 euros, and the everyday Bourgogne Aligoté at a similar price.

These are not watered-down compromises. They are proper Burgundian whites, reds and fizz, farmed cleanly, fermented wild and bottled with barely any sulphur, just made from grapes Julien has bought smartly rather than land he has paid a fortune for. The savings land in your glass, not in the quality.

For anyone curious about natural Burgundy but scared off by the prices, this is the way in. You can taste real Aligoté, real Pinot Noir and real regional character for the price of a supermarket bottle from somewhere far less interesting. Move up the range, and the village and premier cru Sextants climb in price, but even they undercut most of their neighbours. In a region built on scarcity and status, that generosity is genuinely refreshing.

At the core of the Sextant approach is a light hand with sulphur. Sulphur dioxide is the winemaker's great safety net, added to stabilise and preserve, but it can also flatten a wine's life and aroma. Julien uses as little as possible, and many of his cuvées are made with none added at all, a true zero zero. Doing that well takes clean fruit, a spotless cellar and real nerve, because there is no chemical cushion if anything slips. When it works, and with Julien it does, the wines feel vivid and alive.

That instinct places him within a small but growing band of growers reinventing natural Burgundy from the ground up. Several of its best names share cellars and ideas just up the road in Auxey-Duresses.

Vin Noé is one to seek out, the project of Jon Purcell, a Californian who fell for Burgundy and now coaxes gentle, patient wines from reclaimed old vines around Saint-Aubin. Bastian Wolber, a German who also bottles under the name Laisse Tomber, makes precise, chemical-free Chardonnay and Pinot with wild yeasts and next to no sulphur. Domaine Dandelion, run by Morgane Seuillot and Christian Knott, completes the picture with delicate, characterful wines from the same corner.

Together with Sextant and Derain, these growers are quietly rewriting what Burgundy can be. Less polished and pricey, more honest and alive. If you have only ever met Burgundy as an expensive special occasion wine, this new wave, and Sextant in particular, is the fun, affordable, thrilling other side of it.