“In my family, everyone has always cooked and I knew very early on that I wanted to work in this sector. I was curious, greedy, a jack-of-all-trades. At 8 years old, I was making cakes, pizzas, quiches, pasta… I was shy and unhappy at school, and I started odd jobs in restaurants at the age of 15. For two years, I did an apprenticeship in the dining room, in Deux-Sèvres, where I grew up, then two more years in the dining room and in the kitchen, in a starred restaurant in Tours.
I then left to work in Paris, England, Savoy and again in Tours, where I decided to go back to school. I wanted to do a BTS viticulture oenology, but at the time I needed a scientific baccalaureate which I did not have. So I turned to sommelier studies, which I followed for three years. I met Bertrand at that time, in 2002. He was already working in wine, but we got to know each other through dancing, in a salsa club where I danced every night.
I worked as a sommelier at the Wine Museum in Paris, then in a restaurant in Neuilly. But I was in love with Bertrand, and he was a wine worker in Vouvray. One of us had to change his life. We quickly realized that the best way to be together was to work together, as his butcher parents and my farmer parents had done before us.
Making wine quickly seemed obvious to us. We imagined managing an inn in the south of Touraine, but it was ultimately a wine estate that we took over in 2004, first rented, then by buying the vines from 2010. We have a small estate that we cherish, 7.5 hectares of vines, three grape varieties, eight cuvées. And, a few years ago, we opened a summer wine bar, to sample our bottles and pair them with a few simple small plates.
I think you can cook to enhance a wine or look for a wine that underlines a dish. I like complex wines and fine cuisine, but I don’t like convoluted speeches and tastings. We must not forget that the products that make up a plate, like what is in a glass of wine, come from the earth: it is important to maintain a certain humility. This is my philosophy for drinking it as for eating it, it must remain accessible and pleasant.
I’m happy, finally, to have kept cooking as a hobby rather than a profession, something that I always enjoy doing, without constraints! I love to focus on a product, a truffle, a cheese, a beet. I like to imagine dishes with what I have on hand, like this pie that can be made in any season. This is an ideal recipe for zero-loss cooking: you can cook the vegetables a little wilted, leave the others raw and crunchy, prepare a large pie or individual portions. This is the realm of possibilities. And it’s perfect for an aperitif with Rose à Lies, our sparkling rosé, gourmet, light and full of life. »
