Ariane Lesne, Picrochole 2021 1.5L

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100% Pineau d'Aunis

Côteaux du Vendômois, Loire Valley, France

Young vines of pineau d’aunis, 17 and 30 years old respectively, from the top of the parcel. Just over two months of maceration with some remontage, all done in tank.

Ariane Lesné has been working in wine since the early 1990s after leaving university with a postgraduate degree in management and marketing, specifically in the area of wines and spirits. In 1994, she joined the Repaire de Bacchus, a chain of Parisian wine stores. It was in 1998 that Ariane worked her first harvest in Burgundy and led her to complete her training with a Professional Patent Manager Farmer, with the goal of one day managing her own domain. She stayed in Burgundy for six years, where she had the chance to work with one of the seminal (now certified biodynamic) domaines in Nuits St. Georges, Domaine de l’Arlot.

In the mid-2000s, Ariane went to Great Britain to work for an English wine merchant who introduced her to the world of fine wine speculation, but in 2008, she returned to Paris to take up the trade of wine merchant. It was here that she was first immersed in the world of organic, biodynamic, and natural wines which fueled her desire to return to the land.

During this time she was falling under the spell of pineau d’aunis, specifically the 2005 vintage of Domaine de Montrieux Rouge, which reminded her of the texture of the pinot noir that she loved so much but with an added aromatic side typical of the grape variety. This was the spark that then led to a deeper interest in the region the variety is grown — that is in and around Touraine and Anjou — and a quest to taste all the wines made from it. After a few years of exploration, it was settled that this is where she was going to live. She took the reins at Domaine de Montrieux in the Côteaux du Vendômois in spring 2015, where she has been since.