Like many wine lovers, Benoît began by tasting and serving wines as a sommelier before moving on to production. He studied in Burgundy, trained in a conventional farm in Chambolle Musigny, but his sources of inspiration were immediately from producers of natural practices, such as Dominique Derain and Yvon Métras. Finally, it was in the South, with Eric Pfifferling, with whom he worked for almost 3 years, that Benoît acquired his sensitivity and the desire to cultivate in harmony with the living elements. In 2005, after working with Olivier Cousin and the Menard family of the Domaine des Sablonettes in the Anjou area, where he will finally settle, he found a farm to rent with 7 ha of old vines in Faye d’Anjou, with Chenin blanc, Cabernet-Franc and Grolleau, the latter being one of the red varieties on which Benoît bets the most. Part of the vines were in poor condition and was forced to replant using the quality plant material they selected. A large part of the vineyards are around the house where the mini wine cellar is also located. The work in the vineyard is preferably done by his two horses, so as not to compact the soil and the connection Benoit has for this animal, his father being a horse breeder.
The soils are schist with a soil layer that varies according to the plots. Chenin blanc is mainly planted on the plateaus, such as the Clos des Mailles or Montbenault, while the reds are more situated on the slopes. At the winery, Benoît says that his most time-consuming job is washing the hoses. Make a rack for each wine, the only time when he adds a little sulfur. The wines are bottled after a year of aging, which can be in fiber vats or in wood used according to the wine’s material. From his past as a taster and sommelier, Benoît has preserved a certain rigor of tasting, which makes the wines, being natural, stand out for their precision.
