Before she made wine, Anne Paillet was a touring roadie for British bands including Radiohead, Blur and The Verve. A serious car accident convinced her that corporate life was not for her, and natural wine became the next chapter.
Backstory
Paillet left her job in 2010 to join her partner Gregory Leclerc, a natural winemaker from the Loire. In 2011 she created Autour de l'Anne, building a project around what she calls Loiredoc wines: ripe grapes grown in the Languedoc, then vinified and raised in the Loire where she is based with Leclerc of Chahut et Prodiges.
The Region
The Autour de l'Anne wines bridge two French worlds. The fruit comes from the sun-drenched Languedoc in the deep south, which delivers ripeness and generosity, while the cellar work happens in the cooler Loire Valley, a center of the French natural wine movement.
Vineyards & Farming
For Autour de l'Anne, Paillet hand-harvests the Languedoc fruit, choosing rich, ripe grapes that she can then handle gently to preserve freshness. The aim is wines that are fruity and full yet stay delicate and light, the southern sun captured but kept on a leash.
Winemaking
Autour de l'Anne is uncompromising natural winemaking. Fermentation starts with wild yeasts in concrete tanks, and the wines are made without added sulfur dioxide. Carrying the fruit north to be raised in the cooler Loire is central to the style, and the result is ripe but light reds that marry the warmth of their southern origin with the drinkability of the north.
The Wines
The labels are full of wordplay on her own name, from Anne a Wine Again and Pot d'Anne to W Anne Shot, Wonder Womanne and Les Etats d'Anne. Behind the puns are unsulfured, wild-fermented Loiredoc reds made in tiny quantities.
