Dominique Andiran

Dominique Andiran used to be a ski and sailing instructor but became fascinated by winemaking in 1988 when his uncle asked him to help out with picking that year’s harvest. His uncle only made a small amount of wine and sold most of the grapes to a large Gascony producer which was close to his vineyard.

And then something horrible happened! He was spraying the vines with insecticides when he fell seriously ill and ended up in the hospital. He decided while convalescing that he would either “stop growing grapes or do it differently”.

So, in 2000 he changed to organic viticulture and started making his own wine rather than selling the grapes. This was a major change because of the 20,000 hectares given over to vineyards in the Cote de Gascogne, only 500 hectares were organic at the time and only a mere 30 hectares were used for producing natural wines.

As per normal French practice, Dominique either owns or rents several plots of vines spread across many kilometres in the area of the Gers départment in South-West France around the village of Montreal-du-Gers . He has plots of Chardonnay, Colombard, Petit Manseng, Gros Manseng, Muscadelle, Ugni Blanc, Sauvignon Rose, Merlot, Cabernet Sauvignon, Cabernet Franc and Tannat.

And just so you are not confused by the funny numbers at the end of each wine name, all of his wines are Vin de France and as such, there are restrictions about putting the year of the vintage on the label. However if you read the numbers backwards you may be enlightened!