Domaine l'Austral - 'Pourpre' - Cabernet Franc, Chenin Blanc, Grolleau Gris - Loire Valley, FR - 2021 - 1500ml

Satellite's Hot Take

An incredibly subtle and elegant - if unusual - blend. A 'Super Loire' of Chenin, Cab Franc, and Grolleau Gris. Not the typical suspects when you think of a Loire blend! We've got red, we've got white, we've got in between! All with time blended together aging quietly in a single amphora. It takes on the subtle clay texture of the vessel.

Chillable or not, the wine is so elegant and loves to be at a cellar temp at most.

Think crushed strawberries and the most wonderful cherries - a little black tea, a soft lingering hint of drying hay in a loft (but no horse to be smelled!). This wine is. a. total. delight.

Somewhere on the light side of perfectly elegant red - with a texture that somehow leans skin contact white.

We really love it and got the last 5 bottles of the vintage in CA! When it's gone, it's gone!

✌️

Notes from the Winery/Importer

Notes on the Producer

Laurent is originally from the Alps, and Pauline from Brittany. They met at engineering school; he is a land-surveyor and Pauline a plastic and materials engineer. They worked for one year as engineers in France but we were not very happy stuck in front of a computer.
They travelled and worked in Australia in different farms and in a winery on the west coast. This is where they fell in love with wine, and where the name L'Austral comes from.
Pauline then studied in Burgundy to become an enologist; during which time Laurent was a ski instructor during winter and sailing instructor during summer to fund the project.
During her first internship, Pauline worked with Mélaric, who introduced them to Françoise and Philippe Gourdon in Le Puy-Notre-Dame, who in turn had vines to lease.
They now work the parcels of Amandiers, 253 and Vigneaux.
The local Tuffeau (fossil-rich limestone) characterises the wines as well as the local architecture, vineyards typically being clay topsoil with Tuffeau underneath.
The weather systems coming in off the Atlantic are forced upwards by the Mauges hills to the West of Anjou. This causes a rain shadow which gives Saumur more of a continental climate. Le-Puy – being practically the most southerly point – averages less than 200mm/year. The elongated growing season this allows enables the wines to achieve ripeness.
-Wines Under the Bonnet