Michel Autran, 2022 Update
My obsession with the appellation of Vouvray, its history, its varied terroirs, its people and of course its wines, continues unabated. Happily, the vast majority of vignerons in this, surely the most renowned of all the Loire Valley’s appellations, still welcome me with at least with a smile, in a handful of cases with open arms.
I spent a few days in the appellation earlier this year (and I returned last week, as it happens) conducting a round of visits, vineyard walks, and tastings. It was time well spent because – as I also noted further downstream, in Anjou, in particular within my recently published profiles of Terra Vita Vinum and Château de Plaisance – much has changed here over the course of the pandemic years.
The product of these visits and tastings are a dozen reports on the wines of this appellation, to be published over the coming weeks. Some domaines, such as those of Vincent Carême and the late François Pinon, I have kept a close eye on even through the pandemic. Other vignerons, such as Sébastien Brunet and Florent Cosme, I have not tasted with for some time. Some domaines, most notably Domaine des Aubuisières, have changed hands, and my profile is thus in need of an update. Other domaines I will be profiling are new to the site, including one particularly interesting yet overlooked domaine making noteworthy small-volume wines from two tiny parcels on the première côte.
So without any more of this waffle, I begin this series of Vouvray reports with a quick and easy update, given that the vigneron in question – Michel Autran (pictured above) – is well known to these pages, and his portfolio of wines is small.
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