L'Austral, Octopus Blanc, Saumur, Loire, France

Unsatisfied with sitting behind a desk, Pauline Mourrain and Laurent Troubat gave up their engineering careers to travel and WWOOF across the West coast of Australia where they worked at several farms and wineries. This is where they fell in love with wine, hence the name 'L'Austral'. Pauline went on to study enology in Dijon while Laurent instructed skiing and sailing to fund their dream. Pauline's first internship was at Melaric where she was introduced to Françoise and Philippe Gourdon in Le Puy-Notre-Dame who had some vines to lease.

The Octopus Blanc is 100% chenin, slow and gentle pressing, made with indigenous yeasts and zero additions of sulphur