🚚💨 FREE DELIVERY FOR ALL ORDERS OVER 120.- 🎁 ⚡NEW AT VIN NATURE? TOO MUCH CHOICE? TRY ONE OF OUR PACKS –⚡ 📍FRIDAY SHOP HOURS📍 🌈MONDAY, TUESDAY, WEDNESDAY, THURSDAY, FRIDAY, SATURDAY 09:00-19:00, SUNDAY 12:00-18:00 🌈
Midnight Bath
Switzerland
Neuchâtel
A bit of a romantic eccentric and a meticulous creative, Raphaël Lambelet started out as a pastry chef and confectioner. He gave it up shortly thereafter to devote himself to painting while working part-time as a waiter. Captivated by the restaurant business, he eventually threw himself into it full-time and opened his first bistro in 2002.
In 2010, he experienced his first love at first sip for natural wine, and it changed everything: «It all started with Mylène Bru’s La Bordigue. A red wine… I remember it as if it were yesterday! » The elegance and drinkability of Mylène Bru’s wines sparked a newfound curiosity in the restaurateur, who began searching, tasting, spitting, discovering, swallowing, and embracing this budding love for wines made without additives or sulfites.
Starting in 2020, he and his friend Franz Hausamann became the two wine merchants behind Le Naturiste. The duo began traveling even more extensively throughout Switzerland, France, and Alsace to meet the people shaping contemporary natural winemaking. From wineries to wine fairs, Raph tasted countless bottles. The desire to produce his own wines began to take root. When would the turning point come? Fortunately, the epiphany wasn’t long in coming…
In 2022–23, he worked in the vineyards of Jean-Michel Henrioud (Auvernier, NE). By then, it was clear: this time, he had to leave the restaurant business behind to make room for an intimate and tangible connection to the land. Guided by Henrioud—a pioneer of natural wine in the region and the “druid of the Littoral,” who prepares herbal teas for several wineries—as well as Elodie Kuntzer and Benoit de Montmollin, he finally set out on his own as a winemaker.
And because you can’t force fate—it simply unfolds naturally when you’re in the right place—an acquaintance gave him access to the cellar of an old building in Colombier (NE). An unimaginable stroke of luck. Renovations will begin in the winter of 2023–24, alongside the winemaking process for the 2023 vintage.
Drawing on the collective knowledge shared by the winemakers they had met in the years leading up to their move here, and having acquired two vineyards—one planted with Pinot Noir and the other with Chasselas—the adventure began with the firm intention to work the land, to live there fully, and to understand each vintage…
