The artists behind the Wines
Because great wines are the combination of soil, grapes and workmanship.
David FOURTOUT
Bergerac
With their origins in St Emilion, the Fourtout family has dedicated itself to wine for four generations.
Combining passion, knowledge and a taste for innovation, David Fourtout is working to continue today the business started over a century ago.
The reason for his reputation is a recognition of the quality of the wines he makes. David Fourtout works on assembling wines from his terroirs and on how these terroirs work together. It is the passion of a man for nature. The raw material is of primordial importance. His products are recognised, because he was elected winemaker of the year, and has won many prizes.
David Fourtout has been able to improve the reputation of the Bergerac region. Thanks to his ambition and knowledge, he has brought a drop of complexity, a hint of house style, and a pinch of innovation to his wines.
Francois VILLARD
Rhône Valley
Passion fruit François Villard worked as a chef for a time, and is himself a solid menu whose specialities are fricassée of independence, carpaccio of energy, gratin of boldness and sauté of ambition. All liberally seasoned with intuition. Who would have thought, when he breezily started out in 1989, that nearly 20 years later he would be one of the leaders in the northern Rhône Valley?Without ever losing his look of mischief, François has pushed on with what felt, quite simply, like a calling. He has built it all through a craving for pleasure and work. Neither cranky nor fearful, he has driven his ideas to the limit – often by instinct. Over the years everything has gelled into solid experience, and the man has forged a vigneron’s well-tempered resilience. In 1993 came the first press article and his first selection in a guide: François skipped around his kitchen, as joyful as a schoolkid in a playground. The youngster had always dreamed of one day ranking among the great winemakers; he was not arrogant, it just seemed self-evident. Thus could he forever feel the “vine magic” that had beguiled him when, aged 20, he had met his first growers. Thus could he give lifelong roots to an emotion, the way he had felt when, in 1987, he had tasted the Condrieu of Lucien Desormeaux. In Poncins, where he planted his very first vine, is a big rock. Sometimes, on days of doubt, François goes to sit on it: what if the dream were to end? A classic bout of the blues for a hyperactive grower who will never depart from his true nature: he is a wine adventurer.