Catharina Sadde trained as a chef in Michelin-starred German kitchens before her path bent toward wine. Wine degrees from Geisenheim and Montpellier SupAgro came first, then a résumé that reads like a tour of Burgundy's most singular addresses: Domaine de la Romanée-Conti, Comte Armand, Marquis d'Angerville, Cécile Tremblay, Drouhin, de Vogüé. In 2019, she and her husband Guilhem launched Les Horées from a rented cellar in Pommard, naming the project after the Greek goddesses of the seasons. The domaine now spans 1.5 hectares of biodynamically farmed vines around Beaune, supplemented by parcels she works herself on long-term arrangements with neighbors. Whole clusters are used liberally, sulfur sparingly, and the cellar work follows instinct rather than a fixed playbook.

The cuvée name nods to Marcel Proust's first published book, an 1896 collection of prose poems and novellas. Catharina chose it when she began blending two old-vine parcels in Savigny: Les Vermots, a south-facing village site mid-slope toward Bouilland with light reddish soil and abundant limestone, and Les Peuillets, an east-facing parcel that straddles village and premier cru ground. Both average around eighty years old. The wines used to be bottled separately; the blend began in 2022.

The fruit is purchased, but Catharina farms both sites herself biodynamically. The wine sees 80% whole clusters, indigenous yeast fermentation without sulfur additions in stainless steel, and ten months in used barrels, with the lots blended a month before bottling. The 2024 vintage pared yields hard across Burgundy, and what emerged carries unusual clarity. Wild strawberry, sour cherry, dried rose, and white pepper run through a frame of fine bones and an aromatic lift that keeps the whole thing aloft.