Once upon a time, Anjou was best known for sweet, honeyed wines. Today, it’s referenced the world over for intensely flavored, dry Chenin—almost exclusively from natural growers. Five hours south and a few decades later, a similarly exciting revolution is taking shape.

Jurançon, tucked into the French Pyrenees, has become home to some of France’s most exciting young growers—a group rethinking the Manseng varieties (historically tied to sweet wines) and turning them into naturally dry bottles that keep all the famed intensity (acidity as powerful as their exotic fruit character) without the sugar. As we’ve said in the past, the results are riveting. 

Perhaps no producer is capturing the moment—and the excitement—in Jurançon like Domaine de l’Apollin, whose first stateside release has just landed. The farming, the natural work in the cellar, and the finished wines all feel like a signal of what’s ahead here.

Florent Foury, the man behind Domaine de l’Apollin, might only be in his first vintages, but he couldn’t have a better launching pad: two impressive mentors tailor-made for high-wire Jurançon.

First, he spent time in Vouvray with Michel Autran (there's that Chenin ↔ Manseng connection again): the doctor-turned-vigneron whose tiny Loire domaine is built on dry wines, spontaneous fermentations, and obsessive farming. And—maybe most formative—he worked with Jean-Baptiste Semmartin at Domaine Lajibe, a quiet luminary for those devoted to natural wines that are as delicious as they are hard to find (no U.S. importer).
At the core is biodynamic farming in Jurançon’s Monein and a fervently precise natural style—think Bernaudeau at his best. This is the rarified air that formed Foury.

Florent Foury in his cellar; photo via Stelle Wine Co

With that context, you can see why he set the domaine a literal stone’s throw from Semmartin, ten minutes from his mentor, and right where you’d want to be to make great wines in Jurançon. The appellation can be humid and prone to disease pressure, but Foury’s biodynamic parcels—four plots planted to the Manseng varieties—sit at roughly 300 meters on the côteaux, where drying foehn winds come off the Pyrenees. That airflow keeps canopy and fruit clean, and the result is Manseng that can embrace the warmth, ripen fully, and still hold electric acidity.

It’s this tension in the fruit that makes the wines so special. Foury separates his parcels but, by and large, treats them the same: fermentation and élevage in 228L and 350L barrels for about 10 months, with indigenous yeasts, no fining, no filtration, and just a touch of sulfur at bottling.

Nothing that leaves the cellar feels overly polished, or marked by oak. But they don’t feel raw, either. Foury uses the comfort of lees and oxygen to frame the intensity of Manseng, and the combination is dizzying and delicious. It captures what we love here: tropical fruit, acidity that defies the warm region, and flavors that linger long after you’ve finished the glass.

2024 Domaine de L'Apollin 'Le Champ des Loups' VDF, $95
Old vines from an estate parcel in Monein: 70% Gros Manseng / 30% Petit Manseng; The domaine’s calling card.

2024 Domaine de L'Apollin 'Aux Vignettes' Jurançon, $95
All Petit Manseng from Aubertin. This is the first vintage for this wine.

The winery; unique 'puddingstone' soils on the estate. Photos via @domaine_de_l_apollin