L'AUSTRAL

Anecdotes from the Estate: We won't lie to you, we're still very new to this business, as 2016 is our first vintage! We promise you, we put a lot of love into it! We have many ideas, a multitude of desires, and very few certainties! Wine constantly puts us in our place; it is, we believe, the epitome of humility... It is wonderful encounters that have led us to make wine today, these winemakers who respect the land, the environment, and people. It is therefore our duty to do the same: to succeed in making sincere and vibrant wines, the wines we simply love! The story of the "L'Austral" estate began with a journey. Pauline is from Finistère and Laurent from Savoy; they met at engineering school (INSA), and nothing predestined them for winemaking. After their studies, they worked for a year as engineers before deciding to take a year off for professional and personal development, culminating in a trip to Australia. They worked at a winery on the Australian west coast, where they discovered the world of viticulture and winemaking. This experience was a revelation for their future: working outdoors, connecting with nature, finding meaning—they set their minds on one day producing their own wine. The wheels were in motion: Pauline resumed her oenology studies in Dijon while Laurent traveled the slopes of the Alps as a ski instructor. They both trained in different wine regions: Saumur (Domaine Mélaric), Bordeaux (Château La Tour de By), and Roussillon (Domaine Le Soula). They discovered the magic of the Loire Valley with its great, authentic, and vibrant wines produced on limestone soils, but above all, they discovered an extraordinary and invaluable spirit of mutual support among winemakers! And so it was in Puy-Notre-Dame, in the Saumur region, that the birth of L'Austral quickly materialized following a chance encounter in 2016; Françoise and Philippe Gourdon (Château Tour Grise) leased them 5 hectares of vines cultivated using biodynamic farming methods. Two distinct soil types coexist in Puy-Notre-Dame: Turonian tuffeau chalk and Jurassic flint. L'Austral cultivates 2 hectares of Chenin Blanc and 3 hectares of Cabernet Franc there. Vinification is carried out using indigenous yeasts, without any exogenous inputs, in order to best reveal this very particular terroir. The pride of the estate: Between Finistère and Savoie, between the sea and the mountains, lies the limestone of the Saumur region! It is therefore in the village of Puy-Notre-Dame that L'Austral was born! New winemakers eager to do things right, Pauline and Laurent cultivate 5 hectares using organic farming methods. In winemaking, respecting the natural character of the fruit allows the expression and finesse of the terroir to shine through.