The Wanderers & the Slow Life

The story of Les Errances is a story of escape — not from something bad, but toward something true. Maïté Perrocheau and Warren Truchon met in Rennes in 2009, two young people with the rest of the world ahead of them. They did what the young and curious do: they travelled. From Mexico to Sweden, they backpacked across continents, collecting experiences, languages, and the kind of perspective that only comes from sleeping in unfamiliar places and waking up to unfamiliar skies. When they returned to France, they settled in Paris and did what society expected: they built careers. Maïté in consulting. Warren in communications. The corporate world welcomed them, promoted them, and slowly began to consume them.

But the wanderers never lost their restlessness. After a few years of detour in the corporate environment, they made a decision that would change everything: they would move to the Loire Valley to create a slower and more natural lifestyle. It was not a midlife crisis; it was a midlife awakening. They left the city, the salaries, the security, and the status, and enrolled in viticultural studies. They gained experience working with some of the region's big names — learning the craft from the inside, understanding the vines, the soils, and the cellar, before they ever put their own name on a label. In 2017, the project began to take shape. In 2018, Les Errances was officially born.

The name Les Errances means "Wanderings" — a nod to the years of travel, the restlessness of the spirit, and the belief that a life without wandering is a life without discovery. It is also a statement of intent: this is not a domaine with a rigid master plan; it is a project that evolves, that explores, that allows itself to get lost in order to find something new. The domaine began as a committed négociant project — buying organic grapes from trusted growers — and expanded with the purchase of their own parcels, including land from Joël Ménard of the legendary Les Sablonnettes, grown on schist soils. Today, they farm 6 hectares organically, with a permaculture ethos that treats the vineyard not as a factory but as an ecosystem.

Maïté and Warren are a couple in life and partners at the vine. They live in the Maine-et-Loire department, about 15 kilometres south of Angers, in a landscape of gentle hills, wooded valleys, and the quiet rhythm of the Loire. Their wines are not merely products; they are postcards from the journey — each cuvée a reflection of a place, a vintage, and the slow, patient work of two people who chose authenticity over convenience. The labels are playful, hand-drawn, and full of personality — a visual reminder that wine should be joyful, not solemn. As one importer puts it: "Their wines are vibrant, honest, and full of life."

The guiding philosophy of Les Errances is expressed in three words: freedom, sincerity, and life. Maïté and Warren are committed to winemaking that is free-spirited and deeply rooted — a framework that allows them to combine the experiences of their corporate past with the dreams of their rural present to create wines of the future. This is not a reaction against modernity; it is a deeper application of it: if the soil is schist, the grapes are healthy, and the process is clean, nothing needs to be added. The wines are not manufactured; they are allowed to become — each cuvée a reflection of the variety, the vintage, and the patient, intuitive work of two people who learned to listen to the Layon valley after years of listening to boardrooms.

The methodology is deliberately minimal and fundamentally Loire. All grapes are hand-harvested across the 6 hectares of organic vines, and transported immediately to the cellar. Fermentation is spontaneous — initiated by the natural wild yeasts that live on the grape skins and in the wild air of Rablay-sur-Layon. Maïté and Warren do not inoculate with cultured yeasts, adjust temperatures aggressively, or force the wine into a predetermined shape. The long fermentation — extended over weeks rather than days — allows the native yeasts to fully express themselves, creating wines of complexity, depth, and a living, evolving texture that short, industrial fermentations cannot achieve. The wines are aged in a combination of fermentation vessels — different tanks, different materials, different sizes — to add layers of complexity and prevent homogenisation.

The additives protocol is absolute: no additives, no modern oenology, no sulfur — or minimal sulfur only if a given vintage absolutely requires it. The goal is to allow the entire native yeast flora to fully unfold during winemaking — it stabilises and preserves the wine naturally, a strength that comes from within. The wines are bottled without filtration or fining where possible, preserving their natural brightness, their living texture, and their evolving clarity. This demands absolute cleanliness in the cellar, perfect grape health in the vineyard, and a willingness to accept that each vintage will be slightly different from the next — because each vintage is a conversation between the schist, the weather, and the wild yeasts, not a product of a recipe. The Les Errances cellar is not a technological facility; it is an extension of the vineyard — a space where indigenous yeasts, combined vessels, and the patience of two wanderers do the work.

There is no temperature-controlled tank farm dictating additions, no consultant recommending corrective enzymes, no recipe that overrides the vintage. There is only Maïté, Warren, the grapes, the schist, and the patience to let the wine take the time it needs. The result is a portfolio of wines that are honest, spontaneous, and alive — wines that change in the glass, that evolve in the bottle, and that carry the unmistakable signature of a couple who spent a decade wandering the world before they found their truth in a vineyard. As one distributor notes: "Their wines are vibrant, honest, and full of life." And as the labels suggest — playful, hand-drawn, full of personality — these are wines that do not take themselves too seriously, even as they are made with absolute seriousness of intent.

To understand Les Errances, one must understand that it is not merely a winery; it is a philosophy of movement, a corporate escape made real, and a proof that two wanderers can find their home in a vineyard. The identity of the project is defined by the name itself — Les Errances, "Wanderings" — a nod to the years of travel, the restlessness of the spirit, and the belief that a life without wandering is a life without discovery. The identity is also defined by couplehood — Maïté and Warren are partners in life and at the vine, two people who made the same decision to leave the city and start again. The estate is not a monoculture; it is a home. The result is a portfolio of wines that are not merely products but postcards from the journey — each bottle a testament to the conviction that wine should be vibrant, sincere, and full of life.