A new Carmel wine tasting room celebrates wine, terroir and a famed French astronomer.

A new wine tasting room has opened in the space that once held Lepe Cellars.

“We’re the next emerging brand,” says Steph Oettinger, estate director for Domaine Messier, an organically farmed, off the grid, single estate winery with vineyards just inland from the Carmel coast.

Dubbed Atelier Domaine Messier, the tasting room is the winery’s first. Owners Luc Messier and Julie Fette released their first vintage in 2022 from Pinot Noir and Chardonnay vines planted in 2018. Local winemaking standouts Greg and Chris Vita teamed up with Étienne Grivot from Vosne-Romanée in Burgundy to develop the vineyards and produce the wine.

“It’s the perfect pairing of New World and Old,” Oettinger observes. Indeed, guests at the tasting room can compare a Pinot Noir Cuvée Sagittaire made under the direction of Grivot in the Burgundian style with a brighter yet equally balanced Pinot Noir Cuvée du Nouveau Monde made by the Vitas as a nod to American treatment of the varietal.

The tasting room fills the entrance to Carmel’s Winfield Gallery and is clad in ciel bleu—a custom spin on blue—with artwork reflecting the winery’s bottle labels.

Domaine Messier celebrates French astronomer Charles Messier and the 100 objects he catalogued. Label art—as well as art decorating the wall behind the tasting room’s long counter—are inspired by Messier’s discoveries.

Atelier Domaine Messier first welcomed guests on Thursday, Dec. 4. The tasting room is open Thursday-Sunday from noon-5pm. Hours may be expanded at a later date.

Atelier Domaine Messier, Dolores between Ocean and 7th, Carmel. (831) 293-4520, domainemessier.com.