Old-vine, dry Chenin from the hot south-facing Les Enfers site in Noizay, raised for two years before bottling to deliver ripe stone fruit and flinty precision.
This comes from the lieu-dit Les Enfers translating as 'hell', a particularly hot south-facing site in Noizay, where Michel owns 1.5ha of 50yo vines on flinty clay-limestone soils. Fermentation starts in stainless steel, it is then racked off by gravity into barrels (4-12yo). The wine is transferred into stainless vats after a year, and stays there for another 12 months. Sulphur was added at débourbage and before bottling for a total of 40mg/l.
Notes on the producer
Although Michel Autran’s first official vintage was only 2013, he is already making headlines as one of the most gifted and exciting vignerons in Vouvray. Ex-GP, Michel joins the ranks of ‘néo-vignerons’ such as Richard Leroy and Pierre Fenals who changed careers to follow their passion. And he explains, “I have dreamt of becoming a paysan since I was a kid, simply because farming creates life, and that's an amazing feeling.” Leaving his job in 2006, armed with little more than a keen amateur’s knowledge, Michel made a point of learning from the best producers in Vouvray and Montlouis. He studied under Vincent Carême and Damien Delecheneau, staged with the Joussets, Mathieu Cosme, Frantz Saumon, and worked for François Pinon until setting up shop in 2011.
Calm and focused, Michel took the time to select his vineyards with care and now owns 3.5ha of old vines – the youngest being 50 years old – on prime sites in Noizay. Michel recently started to work more intuitively in the vineyard, closely observing how his vines respond to his methods and trusting his instincts instead of reaching for ready-made solutions. He is assisted by a geobiologist who comes once a year to help him better understand the energy and natural balance of the plants as well as the microbial life of his soils. Although he doesn’t want to be tagged as a biodynamic grower, he follows the lunar calendar and uses preparations such as the 500 and 501, supplemented by tisanes (decoctions) of nettle and horsetail.
