The Young Winemakers #1 / Charles Soulier : "Today I know why I get up in the morning..."

Based in Saint-Hilaire d'Ozilhan in the Gard and spotted in Lyon at the "Sous les pavés, la vigne" trade show in November 2016, the Frères Soulier are now among the young winemakers to watch. As Winerybegins to take off, Charles, one half of the duo, talks unfiltered about his background, his vision of the profession and Louis de Funès. Interview.

WHEN DID YOU FIRST BECOME INVOLVED WITH WINE AND VINEYARDS? Charles Soulier : My father and grandfather have always cultivated the land, especially the vine. When I was a child, we ate traditional dishes with a glass of Côtes-du-Rhône with the family every lunchtime. It was simple, it was good. The good life. SO MAKING WINE IS A LOGICAL NEXT STEP FOR YOU? C.S: Logical, no. Henry Jayer used to say "young people, learn oenology so that you can do without it". If you want to do this job properly, especially without inputs in winemaking, you need a fairly important theoretical base. So I did a master's degree in Viti-Oeno at the Agro de Montpellier. It was the first time that I really wanted to study and the idea of making wine was obviously more and more present. WHEN DID YOU AND YOUR BROTHER DECIDE TO TAKE THE PLUNGE? C.S: At the same time as I was studying, the family Winerywent into receivership, which precipitated the project to set up a business. We decided to go together ("the Frères Soulier"), naturally. My brother and I have to be on exactly the same wavelength, the kind of relationship that cannot be explained. We share the same daily search for autonomy. HOW DOES THE INSTALLATION WORK? C.S.: It was quite difficult; we had to make choices in a hurry. First we wanted to buy part of the family vineyard but I was still a student. My mother financed our first two hectares, and then I took out a loan. In fact, we are still borrowing to buy an old barn and put our winery in it. HOW DOES IT WORK FROM AN EQUIPMENT POINT OF VIEW? C.S: Total resourcefulness! A bit like for the vinification, we wanted to go as simple as possible. Too many people still think that it is the quality of the equipment that makes the wine. We press with my grandfather's wooden press, which dates from 1903, and in the vineyard the animals work for us. I had to buy a tractor but I only take it out in the summer for the organic treatments. HOW DID THE NEIGHBOURHOOD REACT TO YOUR ARRIVAL? C.S: At first, perhaps with reluctance. New things are scary, people don't like change... And suddenly, they saw two young people come in! Today we are obviously part of the furniture. LES FRERES SOULIER: ARE YOU LIVING WELL TODAY? C.S.: We live off it thanks to the family. Fortunately, we do. Otherwise, we would have had to do what other winegrowers of our generation did: put a caravan in the vineyard. If what they say is true, these guys are tough. So we live with our parents like teenagers. We're getting a micro-wage to pay for petrol. But we're not to be pitied! The sad thing about it is that you feel you're doing the right thing and you're not being helped. You don't get subsidies for planting non-cloned vines on stakes. This amounts to €20,000 per hectare. It's also expensive to make wine without inputs, because you often have a part of the harvest that is not saleable. On the other hand, if you don't take any risks, you learn nothing. It's a fragile balance, but we accept it! WHAT HAS THIS JOB CHANGED IN YOUR WAY OF LIFE? C.S: The job forces you to isolate yourself a bit. My brother, it suits him, he clearly needs that. I spent a lot of time in the city when I was younger, but I don't regret coming back here because today I know why I get up in the morning. You certainly meet fewer people than in the city, but the exchanges are more genuine, more healthy. And we don't really see it as a job. For the moment we are slowly getting organised but we hope not to make only wine in the future. We'll soon be producing goat's cheese, maybe vegetables, or meat for our own consumption and for friends. It's a way of getting away from monoculture. THE SINEWS OF WAR, I IMAGINE, ARE THE TRADE FAIRS TOO? C.S: The sinews of war are above all the life of the soil! We're not very good at selling, we prefer to work in the vineyards and enjoy the good weather. What I mean by that is that knocking on doors is not my job, nor that of my brother. First of all, we make wine! But of course trade fairs are important, they allow us to save a lot of time, to exchange. Especially with shows like le Vins de Mes Amis or Sous les Pavés La Vigne. But I'm still quite convinced that it's quality that makes for good sales. You can be in the best shows in the world, if you do banal things, it won't last long. HOW IS WINE DOING IN THE GARD? C.S : The Gard is moving, thanks to Eric Pfifferling and Nicolas Renaud in particular. Now there is Valentin Valles, Sébastien Chatillon or Le WineryInebriati. All this is going in the right direction and we must not forget that Henri Bonneau also had a few plots in the department. AND THE AOC, ARE WE TALKING ABOUT IT? C.S: We are teased because the colour of our wines is "too light", or because there is "not enough Grenache or too much Syrah"... Besides that, everyone turns a blind eye to cloned plant material, to the disappearance of old local grape varieties, to ancestral practices such as goblet pruning, or grafting in the field. All this is part of the AOC and our heritage, but unfortunately there is not much left of it. For our part, I think we are doing our best to defend the image of the AOC but we have to downgrade everything to PGI. WHAT ABOUT THE CURRENT WINE WORLD THEN? C.S.: The current wine world is like that, but I don't think that there is any reason to debate the respect of Man and especially of the Environment. In an interview, Louis de Funès said that the only good reason to march in the streets should be nature. He was right. The main thing is that there is a beautiful movement going on, we are part of the parade and we are proud of it.   For more information on this Winery