THE WINE
What an amazing value wine this is!!  Chenin, pure, crystalline and refreshingly moreish.  Named after 'Vent d'Autan,' a hot wind from the south, "known for its mood-altering effects and links to local legends in South-West France" this is a very small (0.5 hectare) plot of very young vines - just 4 years old - planted on limestone.  Direct pressed and aged for 6 months in amphora.  
 
THE PEOPLE
Returning home to his native Cahors in 2018 after a successful Sommelier's career and running the Bar "Lot of Wine' in Paris, Lolo (Laurent) visited 27 plots before finding the terroirs he wanted, which he bought with his best friend, François Sudreau. They named their domaine “Du Vent des Jours”, in homage to a collection by the priest and poet, Abbé Sylvain Toulze.
 
After being taught by Fabien Jouves, he now bio-dynamically farms six hectares of Merlot and Malbec, with his wife Nathalie at La Pélissière in the town of Villesèque. The terroir is located 380m above sea level – the highest point of the appellation.
 
Their objective is to keep the soil alive by using natural fertilizers (horse and cow dung, crushed branches, etc). They also use draft horses to maintain the vineyard: the work of the horses is especially important after the harvest to aerate the ground.
 
THE PLACE
Cahors is an old Roman town sat in a crook of the Lot river in the Southwest of France famed for its wine, truffles and foie gras.  The Malbec grape (also known as Côt found its spiritual home here and found favour in the medieval English court.  Nowadays Malbec is found across the Atlantic in Argentina but for us it only really finds its truest potential in the arid limestone soils soping steeply down to the river outside the city.