In Burgundy, inheritance is never simply about land, it is about philosophy. As the son of Philippe Pacalet, one of the region’s most respected low-intervention vignerons, Réno Pacalet could have easily have followed a single, well-trodden path. Instead, he has chosen to walk two at once. Alongside preparing to take over the family domaine with his sister Ania, he has launched his own project, Maison Réno - a space for exploration, experimentation and personal expression. Rooted in the same commitment to terroir and minimal intervention, yet shaped by his own curiosity, Réno’s wines reveal a young winemaker both respectful of tradition and unafraid to question it.
WS: Maison Réno is your own project, but you’re also deeply involved in your father’s wines - how do the two worlds connect?
RP: We’re connected because we’re family, and we share the same philosophy. We work very well together. With my sister Ania, I’m preparing to take over the family business. It’s a good opportunity for me to express myself, through the wines, the cuvées, the appellations, the terroir.
WS: Why did you start Maison Réno?
RP: It’s an opportunity to express myself freely, to work with terroirs I didn’t know before, or perhaps underestimated. It gives me freedom because I’m working in another winery and seeing everything from harvest through to the commercial side, accounting, sales, administration. I wanted to understand the whole process.
WS: What did you want to achieve?
RP: I love respecting terroir. For me, low intervention is best: low sulphites, no destemming machine, no sorting table. It’s about being more conscious of what you’re doing. Respecting nature, respecting life in general.
WS: How do you juggle Philippe Pacalet and Maison Réno?
RP: It’s a lot of work, especially during harvest and vinification. But the philosophy is the same - to favour the expression of the terroir, to put people at the centre of production, to work with low intervention and remain conscious of the wine.
At Maison Réno I try small things, for example shorter aging, to see the difference. I prefer using old casks because I like the format. For red wines, I only do pigeage (punching down) once a day.
WS: What is the emotion of Maison Réno?
RP: It’s subjective, of course, but I think it’s a sincere wine, straightforward. It’s not the perfect wine; it has small flaws, and I like that. When a wine is too perfect, it feels strange to me. If it’s too perfect, maybe something is hidden.
Mine has elegance, but also a strong expression of terroir. It’s craftsmanship, traditional, with freshness and a certain boldness.
WS: Your father had many mentors - Who are yours?
RP: I work in a shared winery, so I have the opportunity to exchange with other winemakers who make their wines there. You have every style of winemaking: from very low intervention to more controlled approaches. It’s interesting to taste their wines. There are 15 of us sharing the space.
Of course, I learn from my father and from my family in Beaujolais as well.
WS: Do you work with your father all the time?
RP: Four days a week I work with my father on Philippe Pacalet; one day a week I work on Maison Réno.
With my father and my sister Ania, we check the wines, we taste them, we follow their evolution. We decide whether to wait before racking, how to manage the vinification, which parcel to harvest first.
WS: Tell me something you did that proved to your father you were right.
RP: Convincing him about the right moment for racking. I do a lot of tastings with visitors, and he trusts me to judge when the wine is open and ready for racking.
He trusts me even more with white winemaking, which I started in 2019. If I feel there’s still some residual sugar or some reductive notes, I say we have to wait and he trusts me, sometimes without even tasting. Now I make the reds as well.
My sister started making the whites in 2023, so now she manages the whites, while I manage the reds and the harvest team.
WS: How is the transition process going so far?
RP: So far, so good. As my sister and I manage the winemaking, it gives my father the opportunity to travel more, to meet people and talk about and promote our wines.
WS: What have you learnt most from your father?
RP: Definitely winemaking. You have to be extremely careful at the beginning of the vinification process, especially as we don’t use sulphites. You must make sure the indigenous yeasts take over properly. It’s about constant attention and analysis.
WS: What still surprises you about him?
RP: When he says, “The wine is very open now, we should rack it, otherwise it will become too oxidative.” He can predict very precisely when to rack and when to bottle. He has an incredibly accurate nose and palate.
WS: What is your earliest memory of wine?
RP: When my father was working at Domaine Prieuré Roch, I remember spending my childhood between the barrels. I always wanted to dip my finger in and taste the wine. I can still recall the smell of the cellar and watching them use the wine thief to draw samples from the barrels.
WS: How do you see Burgundy at the moment?
RP: It’s important that Burgundy keeps its diversity of winemaking. We have to be careful with financiers who simply want to buy land and make money from wine; you risk losing the essence and flavour of Burgundy.
We also need to be careful with the vines themselves. Massal selection is better than clonal selection, but in a century it could become very challenging. With massal selection, in the long term there could be genetic problems; vines are dying more quickly than before. Some vines are degenerating, especially Chardonnay. You rely on material that is already tired.
We need more research. Perhaps even planting from seed again.
WS: How do you see Maison Réno and Philippe Pacalet in the future?
RP: For now, they will continue in parallel. When my father retires, my sister and I will take over. I will keep some cuvées for Maison Réno.
WS: Are you going to make Champagne?
RP: No, but we do make a sparkling wine, Les Bulles.
WS: Is there any wine you secretly want to make?
RP: I like Bandol. I love the character of Mourvèdre - it’s a difficult grape, not easy to approach. If I did it, it would probably be as Vin de France.
Burgundy’s appellation system is restrictive, but it also protects you. For me, the appellation is important.
