Cave de Sauveterre - Vignerons de Bordeaux

As a child I dreamt of doing research, to study flora and fauna. So I started the long years of study and it was in the course of my practical training in oenology (wine making) and the study of the vines at the INRA in Bordeaux that I came to realise that it was not the study of the vines in a test tube that interested me but to experience the vine on the ground. Rather than a laboratory mouse I preferred to become a field mouse, with my boots well anchored in the solid ground and reality, my head in the air and the cranes passing over me. And in which fields? The vineyards, of course, to farm the best that our earth produces.
Very soon I realised how macho this sphere is: I was observed, judged, my ability to manage my agricultural enterprise was questioned. But neither this surrounding professional scepsis, nor negative criticism would have stopped me and although the beginning was not exactly easy, I was determined. My perseverance has made it possible for me to double the surface of my vineyard. And in the 10 years since I set out on this venture, I have never once regretted my choice - it is a privilege to work in a job which one enjoys and always to find pleasure there. Each stage in the growth of the vine brings with it constraints and joys, nothing is set.
Wine has been drunk since the beginning of time and will be drunk as long as the earth turns. The techniques of our work have continuously developed and I am part of this great movement aiming for perfectibility:
- Treat the vine with reason in order to produce a flawless grape whilst endeavouring to preserve the environment to the best of my ability.
- Preserve the land which our ancestors have worked and handed on to us.
I appreciate touching everything in my vineyard, earth and machines in both a literal and figurative sense and even to have my nose in the paper-work, this makes it possible to vary both pleasures and difficulties. What I like on top of that is to be autonomous, independent (within the limits which are imposed) to have this feeling of liberty as far as my choices and my timetable are concerned .... The solitude in my work does not weigh heavily, I like silence, the changes in the passing seasons in the course of time but I also enjoy getting off my ‘vine planet' and for that reason I engaged myself in the life of the community and have served two mandates on our local council. The work of a vine grower makes one humble. We are greatly dependent on the climate which can enhance a harvest or annihilate a year's efforts. One also learns patience - to adapt and to come to terms with Mother Nature.
During the first years I made my own wine from the harvest. My husband is an oenologist and could help me with advice. I worked alone and despite a good organisation and good will, time is not extensible. Both to make wine and to sell it are also full time jobs. But above all I wanted to start a family and have some time to spend with them. So, naturally, I turned to a wine cooperative. The one of Sauveterre de Guyenne is not the nearest but, in my eyes, the most competent. My grapes benefit from the best structures and ultra-performing technologies, with a whole team standing by to produce and promote the best vintage. The wine cooperative constantly pushes us towards a better quality by the means of a notebook of demanding duties - mode of conduct, pruning, yield, the state of health of grapes and leafage - and many other points are noted by the technicians, classifying our plots of vineyard in different categories of contract from ‘out of contract' to ‘quality plus contract'. We are, therefore, paid according to the attention we give to our vineyard and the quality of our harvest. Due to the present economic situation our efforts are not paid according to their true value. These sacrifices are made in a sense of mutual benefit and in the hope of an ulterior financial reward.
Today my life is as I expected, nothing is perfect in the best of worlds but I am able to recognise the quality of life I am privileged to enjoy. If I had to mark it according to my table of evaluations and the notebook of requirements, my ‘plot' of life would definitely be rated at ‘quality plus'.
I hope to transmit to my daughters not so much a heritage of land but a moral heritage: the respect of the earth.

It is said that happiness is in the meadows...... I found it in the vineyard.

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