Sylvain Tiollier

For me, being a winemaker is first of all a heritage and family traditions. My passion comes from my family, of course. What I like is the possibility to make wine in my own image without having to follow production methods and obligations. I have a freedom of artistic expression in the sense that my wines are not made from a recipe, each vintage is different to work with. If I had to talk about an encounter that marked me, it would be in New Zealand, at Margrain Vineyard, where I worked when I was younger. The oenologist I worked with had his own vision of wine. He personified the stages of production by naming his vintages as well as his tanks. He was very inspiring for me. My earliest memory of wine is when, as a child, I used to taste the grape juice during the harvest sitting under the press. As a kid, I was very admiring to see the wine flowing out of the press. What I don't like about the wine business is all the fussy regulations that lead us to spend hours behind a desk rather than in the vineyard. It is important because these procedures certify the quality of our wines but it is very complex! On the other hand, what transports me is the good cohesion in our vineyard where everyone advises each other, helps each other... It's also the pleasure of producing grapes picked in our plots in the middle of the mountains, because we've put a lot of effort into it!