Domaine de L'Aumonier

From Vintage59:
Presented with a synchronicity of events, Sophie and Thierry Chardon founded Domaine de L’Aumonier in 1996 in the far eastern reaches of the Touraine appellation. Thierry’s parents were growers in the region, but Thierry had gone to Paris to fulfill a childhood dream of becoming a firefighter. Toward the end of his five-year employment contract he met Sophie, then a student, and she (or his infatuation with her) persuaded him to leave Paris and firefighting. He returned to Mareuil-sur-Cher to discover that the man who had bought his parents’ vines needed a vineyard manager. Thierry proposed himself, and his father stepped up to train him. Six years later, the young couple inherited seven acres of vines from Sophie’s grandfather. They took the vines without any thought of growing beyond them. Indeed, the original intent was to sell the grapes to a négociant, but then within weeks a retired grower got wind of the transaction and offered to sell them 25-acres of vines. Suddenly, the door was open to start a domaine. Thierry was game—but only if Sophie joined him on the adventure. She accepted.