Happy accident? Anne Paillet had spent years working for a large industrial company in La Defense (financial district of Paris), when a serious car accident made her realize that corporate life was not the life for her. Seeking a new reality, she left her job in 2010 to join her husband Gregory Leclerc, a natural winemaker in the Loire. Always up for a challenge, Anne wanted to make different wines than her husband, with different grapes on a different terroir. She also realized that she needed her own vines for the style of wine that she felt inspired to make. Anneās friend Christophe Beau, a biodynamic producer in Coteaux du Languedoc, offered her a partnership on his 6ha estate, renting her 2.5 ha of his land. In 2011 Autour de lāAnne was created, with the help of Christophe and his son Victor. Anne hand-harvests the grapes and fermentation occurs naturally with wild yeasts in concrete tank without any SO2. The particularity of the estate is that at the end of fermentation, Anne takes the wine to the Loire to finish its aging at Gregoryās winery . Anne told us that the style of her wines tends to be more similar to wines from the Loire Valley than the Languedoc. She avoids heaviness and high alcohol level, preferring lighter, terroir-expressive wines. - Zev Rovine
