Eric spent twenty years managing Clos Cristal in Saumur-Champigny, then two years working alongside Nicolas Joly at Coulée de Serrant, absorbing biodynamics at its source. Alex was a milliner — a maker of hats — from Normandy. She joined Eric at Clos Cristal in 2005 and learned to plough with horses, trading one form of precision handwork for another.

They found their place in La Possonnière in the Anjou, acquiring 5.5 hectares from Loïc Mahé. Oaks and cereal crops surround the vines. The soils are alluvial sand and silt over schist, with one parcel holding unusual volcanic-looking stones — actually recycled railroad ballast, repurposed by a previous owner.

Their first harvest was 2018. Everything since has been fermented and aged in unconventional vessels: former egg-storage tanks, spherical milk-transport containers whose curved walls create a gentle internal convection during red maceration. One Chenin Blanc cuvée, Séraphin, ages in porcelain.

La Franchaie holds more certifications than any other domaine in this collection: Demeter, AB, Biodyvin, Nature et Progrès, and S.A.I.N.S. — the last being the strictest designation in natural wine, requiring zero sulfites across every cuvée. These are not marketing badges. They are constraints the Dubois chose, and they narrow the margin for error to almost nothing.

Alex paints every label herself. Each bottle carries her artwork alongside wine that has passed through egg tanks, milk spheres, porcelain vessels, and the patient work of three horses whose pasture came first.