Guy Breton

The first thing you learn on meeting this rugged-looking, wire-haired winemaker with a twinkle in his eye is that no one calls him Guy. Instead, he goes by ‘P’tit Max’: a diminutive moniker referencing his father that has stuck since childhood. He rose to fame as one of the ‘gang of four’, as legendary US importer Kermit Lynch dubbed them: a group of leading low-sulphur winemakers in Beaujolais. He likes to pick early, and has many old vine parcels at high elevations: he seeks freshness in his wines, and steers away from too much tannin extraction in the cellar.