2020 Michel Autran, Ciel Rouge, VdF

Michel Autran, a former physician who trained under François Pinon, manages his 3.5-hectare estate in Noizay with a rigorous focus on soil health and low-impact viticulture. His technical approach favors a slow, two-year elevage split between neutral demi-muids and stainless steel, allowing the Chenin Blanc to achieve a stable, reductive equilibrium without the need for high sulfur additions. This VdF bottling is sourced from 80-year-old vines rooted in *aubuis*—an iron-rich red clay over tuffeau limestone—which provides the thermal inertia and water retention necessary to produce wines of significant weight and architectural depth. In the solar 2020 vintage, these deep-rooted vines utilized the moisture of the clay to maintain physiological ripeness while preserving their natural nerve, resulting in a bone-dry profile where a broad, phenolic mid-palate is balanced by a high-toned, chalky acidity. The wine concludes with a fine-grained mineral tension and a persistent saline core, a direct outcome of Autran’s commitment to dry-farmed precision and extended lees contact.