Jean-Paul Autard (above) has managed the family domaine since the age of seventeen. When it comes to cultivation, vinification, and related factors (ripeness as measured in phenols, total égrappage at the time of harvest, aging in barrels), he aims for balance among all the crucial elements: not just materials but timing, as well.
“The definition of a great Châteauneuf-du-Pape?” Jean-Paul Autard anticipates the question, and offers two paired elements in answer: “Intense and potent on the one hand; elegant and refined on the other. Somehow it has to deliver these complementary qualities, which together explain why the pleasure deepens as it lingers on the palate.”
Proud to perpetuate the Autard family’s winemaker lineage, Jean-Paul undertakes his rôle unhobbled by preconceptions , and spurred on by his own inborn enthusiasm and curiosity, as well as his savoir faire.
It is this mélange that makes for young wines not just of great charm but that prove to be prodigious when allowed to age. For Jean-Paul Autard, making wine means giving all the qualities rooted in his vineyards the chance to prove their promise, thanks to the application of all his acquired know-how, and that one indefinable ingredient: the passage of time.
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