At the heart of the Allier region, the town of Meillard is home to our 22-hectares wine estate. Over the years, our family know-how and unconditional passion for viticulture has driven us to bring the best out of the Saint-Pourçain terroir, one of the most ancient appellation of the Loire region.
The Bellevue Wine Estate
A family affair
It all started in 1920 when Gilbert Pétillat acquired the wine estate. Four generations later, in 1982, Jean-Louis Pétillat joined the winery and went forward with the work of Gilbert & Lucienne. In 2014, the Pétillat family handed the wine estate to the Gautier family, who shares a similar love for the land and a taste for nature’s best.
The vineyard
As the French saying goes, you can’t make good wine without good grapes! Half of our vines have been planted more than 30 years ago. Our vineyard also benefits from two different types of soil: one granitic in Meillard and another one composed of bourbonnais sands and gravels in the town of Chatel-de-Neuvre. The precious micro-elements of these soils lend their typicality and richness to our wines.
If wines reflect the personality of the vinegrower, the blend of grapes expresses the creativity of the winemaker. Since he obtained a diploma in Viticulture & Oenology in Beaune, Burgundy, Jean-Louis Pétillat has pursued with much passion the vinification of the vineyard’s harvest. For over 30 years, his skill, enriched by his family know-how, has raised the aromatic quality and the renown of the Bellevue Estate wines.