Pauline Lair
Angers, Loire, France
The Loire is France’s longest river, flowing for 1006 kilometers from its source in the Ardèche, to its mouth in the Atlantic Ocean. Along its way, the Loire flows through different terroirs and regions with diverse wine traditions. The soils differ greatly along the way, from volcanic soils through argilo-calcareous, clayey, chalky and flint types to the metamorphic and volcanic soils of the Black Anjou and Pays Nantais.
It is exactly this complexity and diversity that inspires Pauline Lair in winemaking. Her project, 1006 vins, clearly references the entire Loire. This project consists of an urban winery in Angers. Lair does not have her own vineyards. Instead, she cooperates with friendly winemakers from all along the Loire who supply her with grapes. These cooperations and friendships are based on a shared respect of the earth, expressed in the durable and organic farming of the grapes. Pauline even travels up and down the Loire herself in order to track the health and development of the vines she selected for 1006 vins.
In order to uphold the careful work of her vignerons and to respect their terroirs, Lair ferments her wines spontaneously and ripens them in fiberglass barrels. Although the wines are labeled on grape variety instead of appellation, their relation to their original terroir is far from lost. In the words of Pauline Lair:
“I am in love with the Loire and this drives me to make honest wines that reflect their terroirs. I vinify the grapes of my partners naturally. That is, using indigenous yeasts, with minimal or no interventions, without dogma, in order to make good wines that are alive!”
Next to 1006 vins, Pauline Lair started a new project: À Quatre Mains. For this project she makes wines together with her partnering vignerons, in their cellars but following her vision. The project is centered around experimenting with blends and new grape varieties. The wines are only contrived at the last moment of the harvest. Thus, each blend is adapted to that year’s harvest.
All her wines are super straight forward, clean and very easy to pour by the glass. Definitely worth discovering!
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