Manifesto

A wine route and a life path

My story with wine began with my family roots in Burgundy. There, I also had my first professional experiences with oenologists and winemakers who passed on their expertise and gave me a sense of place. This unique initiation inspired me to build my journey as a life path and a journey of learning, somewhat akin to the companions’ tour of France. So, I decided to follow my own wine route.

I started it in Bordeaux, where I worked and learned a lot from a renowned consultant who took me under his wing. Through his strong personality, his counter-culture approach to Bordeaux, and his activity among Grands Crus Classés as well as anonymous chateaux, I realized that consulting could be a profession of total freedom as much as great expertise.

I then continued my initiatory journey in the Rhône Valley, within a great historic House in Tain l’Hermitage, owner of Côte-Rôtie to Châteauneuf-du-Pape, but also in Roussillon, Alsace, and Australia. Assuming the technical direction of all the vineyards, I lived up to the House’s motto: to do without ever giving up.

Then the time came for a return to my roots in Burgundy, in Chablis, where I joined a historic estate.
Through my work in both technical and representational roles, I sharpened my perspective on both the upstream and downstream of wine: from its cultivation and vinification to its prescription and commercialization in France and abroad.

During this time, my wife and I created our own wine House dedicated to Irancy and northern Burgundy. Making wine for myself and not just for others immersed me in a different kind of hands-on reality.

Alongside my work and in my free time, I continued to nurture this small flame of consulting by assisting family estates, notably in Champagne and Portugal.

Today, companionship and maturity have strengthened my desire to fully transmit expertise of the highest qualitative standards, as I learned from my mentors.

By choosing to anchor my winemaking activity to that of consulting, I continue this sharing of experiences with other winemakers I intimately know and, dare I say, with whom I share a common experience. We recognize each other because we are companions in the trade. We are united by all the questions and challenges that punctuate our work: practices, obstacles, doubts, vigilance, adaptation, and success.

Thus, I will accompany you closely, with a sensitive and well-founded reading of a place, expertise, and market challenges: from production to prescription, from cultivating taste to mastering the art of inspiring consumer desire.

•

Farming with respect for the land and vegetation

Between realism and a taste for an ideal, my approach to viticulture is that of a living nature full of diversity and complexity. My vine cultivation is based primarily on harmony, with principles of respect, balance, and virtue.
It is the very foundation of agroecology: taking into account all available resources, from water to energy, from human to economic.
Then, my vine cultivation is inspired as much by the sensitivities that traverse it (organic, biodynamic, phytotherapy) as by a common-sense approach enriched by practice and observation.
This is why the specificity of the location should inspire a particular and non-dogmatic cultural approach.

•

Wine, a singular taste imprint

Being a consultant cannot be reduced to recipes that simply teach how to make wine and sell it… In making wines with and for others, I have come to the conviction that a unique wine always results from the conjunction of two things.
The first is the freedom to create it with one’s own inspiration. The second is the assurance of never compromising its quality or precision because there are essential rules and principles.
With this combination of protocol, intuition, and sensitivity, a wine will never resemble another and will establish itself durably in the consumer’s memory and desire.

•

Project manager with you

Being a winemaker means performing several trades simultaneously and mastering numerous skills. It means asking oneself many questions about production, identity, economy, sales, prescription…
To best serve your uniqueness, I am therefore wary of any model applied without discernment or an approach reduced to a catalog of unchangeable rules and other definitive models “that have proven themselves.”

As a project manager with diverse technical expertise, accustomed to the trades and the many skills of vine and wine, I have constantly had to juggle between global vision and extreme attention… to details, stories, identities of terroirs, and styles.
From this flexibility and clarity will emerge applied diagnostics and tailored solutions.

•

Site manager for you

Because there is no ready-made answer, each case will involve a challenge, not mere oversight or an ideal projection. Companionship consists of building a close path together, with its stages, patience, and boldness.

Because I never apply broad general principles, I will of course be by your side, but more than that: I will listen to you, even paying attention to what might remain unsaid. In this trade, you must hone your hearing as much as your nose! This listening will assure me of a constant and stimulating exchange.

This exchange unites us in a rhythm of vigilance and patience. A care we will practice daily in the vineyards, at every stage of vinification, and today more than ever, with an unavoidable environmental vigilance.
Up to an in-depth knowledge of economic, commercial, and prescription mechanisms.

Thus, beyond strictly viticultural questions, we will move forward together within the realism of resources that does not hinder the momentum of a vision.
And if I owe you the means to achieve your ambitions, this approach will also give us the opportunity to continue moving forward together for as long as necessary.