Yvon Metras, Fleurie Printemps, 2019

One of the gang of five pioneering natural winegrowers in the region (along with Thevenet, Lapierre, Foillard and Breton), he counts Jules Chauvet and Jacques Neauport as his inspirations. Métras is now widely seen as one of the very top producers in the region, if not the top, and his wines fetch quite a premium over those of others. But they are in relative short supply: he farms just under 6 hectares of vines. Métras works with semi-carbonic maceration, at very low temperatures. His inspirations were Chauvet, Neauport and Lapierre. He learned from them that it’s best if ferments are as long as possible. It’s really risky and difficult working at low temperature, and most people who make natural wine don’t have the courage. To work at temperatures as low as 5 C you need perfect grapes: there is no alternative. Métras says that he doesn’t like to taste his wines in winter, because what is happening in the cuvée can scare him.