KERMIT LYNCH WINE MERCHANT

Grange Saint-Sauveur’s wines are the first KLWM imports bearing Antoine Pouponneau’s name on their labels, but the connection with the Anjou native runs much deeper. Antoine worked as cellar manager at La Tour du Bon in Bandol from 1994 to 2006—his first job following enology studies in Dijon—then served a long tenure in Corsica as enologist at Clos Canarelli. His approach as a consultant is radically opposed to that of most enologists: a devout enthusiast of biodynamic farming and wild yeast fermentation, Antoine relies on his expertise in microbiology to create wines of character and identity via natural methods. His talents have earned him several prestigious clients over the years, as the likes of Cheval Blanc, Latour, and many others have sought his services to produce low-intervention, terroir-driven wines.

After years of consulting throughout France and beyond, Antoine opted to settle down and created his very own domaine with his wife, Alice Gitton-Pouponneau, in 2017. Alice, who grew up in Anjou but has family roots in Burgundy and Champagne, recently completed studies in viticulture and enology with a focus on natural methods. She contributed the domaine’s first vineyard, a plot of old-vine Grolleau and Cabernet Franc overlooking the meandering Loire by her childhood home in the village of Le Thoureil, midway between Angers and Saumur. This idyllic site, which they farm biodynamically and plow with a horse, is the source of the elegant, vibrant Grange Saint-Sauveur rouge. Alice and Antoine acquired additional vineyards in 2018, bringing their total holdings to 6.5 hectares and allowing them to add a blanc and rosé to the lineup. Also made from old vines, these mouthwatering creations feature chewy, stony dry extract with a deep, complex structure built around a backbone of slicing acidity—ideal wines for the table. Their new parcels are currently in organic and biodynamic conversion, and the wines are vinified with vineyard yeast, aged in wood, and bottled unfiltered with homeopathic doses of sulfur.

With several combined decades of high-level experience between them plus a great vision for their new domaine and real touch in the cellar, this talented couple’s Anjou cuvées are bound to turn heads and light up palates.