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Armand Heitz vigneron prie devant sa cuverie à Chassagne-Montrachet en Bourgogne

Who wants to become a winemaker?

Posted by Armand Heitz on

My tastings, my meetings, my studies allowed me to see that there were excellent wines everywhere in the world. The estate's project is to produce and sell what we cultivate in a virtuous way. After several failures to take over vines in Burgundy, I turned to Beaujolais. Fan of winegrowers like Foillard, Desvignes or Thivin, a series of opportunities allowed me to become the owner of an 8 ha estate in the Juliénas appellation. The region is hilly and the landscapes are magnificent. On the other hand, the slopes are quite steep and the plots cannot always be mechanized, and when they are, it is dangerous. A fatal accident can happen in the slightest contour of the vine.

Vineyards in Juliénas in Beaujolais with sloping hillsides

Because of his family background, the current manager of the estate told me that he could no longer respond as he did for 4 years to lead the operation. I am therefore looking for a courageous manager or a young person with an installation project. My friend Thibault Liger-Belair has done extremely well with this project with his Domaine des Jeunes Pousses. A journalist managed to publicize the naivety of her failure to discover the profession, here the objective is to succeed. To do this, all you need to do is know how to adapt and understand that you have to work in conjunction with nature.

You will have to get up early. Work according to the rhythm of nature and not according to fixed schedules like in the factory. Like to work when it is cold, when it is windy, when it is raining or when it is very hot. At a time when you no longer have to work physically to earn your living, I offer you just the opposite.

Pruning in the gobelet vines of Beaujolais in Juliénas, manual work

Machines are a great help to us for many tasks, but when it comes to raising animals, cultivating cereals or vine, the hand of man is essential to create a local product.

In addition to having to deal with nature, a land craftsman must generally devote a third of his time to administrative paperwork and another third to the commercial part. Thanks to the structure of the domain, we have the possibility of reducing the administrative and commercial burdens that the project leader will have to manage. Which is no luxury when administrative and commercial prostitution gives you hemorrhoids.

Armand Heitz in the Chassagne-Montrachet quarry

Many agro-food economic models are based on the industrialization of production. These models produce standard, sanitized and unfit for consumption food. The philosophy of the domain is to put the hand of man at the heart of nature in order to produce healthy, living food with a beneficial action for our microbiota. In my opinion, this is the only way to regenerate the living and not to transmit an air-conditioned desert to our children.

I sincerely hope to receive many committed and motivated applications to accomplish this beautiful project. If this is not the case, I will have to resolve to grow my vines under photovoltaic panels.

The job offer is available here.

Armand Heitz

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