UNION OF TALENTS
Head of Vineyard and Technical Manager
Viti ADIVISOR
AGROFORESTERY ADVISOR
SOIL EXPERT
Conseil agro bio-ecologique
Prestation chai & conseil
œunologue conseil
Fournisseurs de barriques
Frédéric has been our vineyard manager since 2018. His career has been built up over the years at numerous wine estates on the Right Bank of Bordeaux, and his experience in the field has enabled him to take on positions of responsibility within groups that own several châteaux in the Libourne region. At our place, he is in charge of pruning, monitoring all the “hand work” (wood pulling, lifting, leaf thinning, green harvesting) and of course all the treatments and care we give to our soils and vines. In addition to his agricultural duties, he helps us with work in the winery throughout the year. His professional meticulousness is matched only by his keen sense of hygiene, without which it would be inconceivable to produce a quality wine. Producing a great wine with biodyphy also requires, above all, availability to work, often dictated by the weather, and a particular professional conscience which characterize the qualities required of our technical manager.
Frédéric, head of cultivation since 2018, watches over our vines and cellar with passion and dedication, guaranteeing the excellence of our biodynamic wines.
Elsa is a viticultural advisor from the Gironde Chamber of Agriculture, and has been monitoring our property for several years. Her role in our contract is to support us throughout the season, from April to September, in the judicious positioning of our phytosanitary treatments in organic agriculture, according to the presence or absence of cryptogamic diseases and the weather, particularly rainfall. This essential work enables our team to treat before and after significant rainfall (bearing in mind that any treatment is “washed off” (i.e. ineffective) after 20mm of rainfall or 10cm of active growth).
Her weekly report, often on Tuesdays, is always carefully read: she is our vineyard's physiotherapist.
We’ve always taken a holistic approach to our vineyard and its environment. Jessica helps us to see more clearly the necessary balances that bio-diversity brings us. In addition to her agroforestry advice on planting and maintaining the hedgerows that dot our property, her pedagogy that supports her training workshops in pruning, analysis of vine physiology and vigor, and ph/redox processes, makes Jessica an important talent in helping Blanche Hermine build its balance over time.
With her holistic approach, Jessica enhances biodiversity and provides Blanche Hermine with advice on agroforestry and viticultural expertise, essential to its sustainable balance.
Nicola is passionate about soil as a raw material. It’s his element! Following in the footsteps of the famous soil microbiologist Claude Bourguignon, he knows that it is no longer necessary to demonstrate that a soil with “good” biological activity is a necessary preamble to any quality viticultural approach. Since the purchase of our first plots of vine in 2013, we’ve taken control of our soils, and we’ve continued to improve them thanks to a microbiological study and the implementation of a rebalancing and dynamization program. Today, the granularity of our soil and the massive presence of earthworms attest to this change.
Since 2018, Nicola has organized the monitoring of our plant cover crops, which we sow just after the harvest and which provide all the organic matter nourishing our soils in self-sufficiency. These cover crops, every other vine row, which are rolled/shovelled in the spring, form an excellent protective mattress, capturing the morning dew and releasing it throughout the hot summer days. We also use his services as a consultant for our fermented preparations, which we spray on the soil in spring and autumn, or as foliar sprays to frame the flower period.
Passionate about the land, Nicola has been energizing our soils since 2013 with plant cover and fermented preparations, ensuring their balance and vitality.
Davy is an oenologist by study and qualification, and after a period working for a Lalande-Pomerol estate, he set up his own consultancy firm, convinced of his acquired knowledge and motivated to spread the most respectful pruning method for vines in the Bordeaux vineyards: Dezeimeris pruning. He has been working with us at Blanche Hermine since 2018, and together we have decided on a new architecture for our vines. No branch vine over two years old is pruned, and the vines are lengthened according to a Cot and Baguette structure, where the Cot draws the architecture of the vine. At pruning, the load (number of fruiting buds left on the branch) is measured on a case-by-case basis. The vine feeds its cambium and directs all its energy to fruit production.
Davy, Dezeimeris' pruning maestro, has been shaping our vines since 2018 to give the best of themselves, year after year!
Sébastien is himself a Vine-owner and winemaker in Saint-Émilion, and through his company Prestation Chai et Conseil, he works with us during our harvests, whose crucial scheduling is the guarantee of a vintage’s success. At Blanche Hermine, we don’t own any harvest reception equipment, so we prefer to hire it out. Depending on the sanitary qualities of the harvest, we can easily adapt the number of sorting tables and the number of workers required for this arduous task, which is essential to the intrinsic quality of the grapes we harvest each year. Sébastien, with the help of his brother-in-law Cédric, and without counting his fatigue and long hours, leads the effervescence of our harvests.
Sébastien, a winemaker in Saint-Émilion, accompanied by his brother-in-law Cédric, passionately orchestrates our harvests, adapting equipment and teams to sublimate each vintage.
With over thirty years’ experience in Bordeaux, Europe and the rest of the world, Hervé, a university lecturer at ISVV Bordeaux’s University of Wine & Vine, has acquired considerable experience in the field, both through his own estate in the Côtes de Bourg and his years of consulting work in the heart of vineyards from the biggest names to the most modest. Particularly adept at clarification & stabilization, his discretion is matched only by his determination to understand the subtle and specific organic chemistry of wine. His credo is to restore in the bottle all the complex stabilized transformations that make a great wine. Growing Biodyphy grapes and vinifying them with a minimum of inputs demands rigorous standards that benefit from the expertise of this talented oenologist.
Hervé Romat is Blanche Hermine's family doctor: he knows his patients and encourages her to stay in shape!
Didier, founder of Tonnellerie Bordelaise, is twice Meilleur Ouvrier de France in cooperage and artistic cooperage, and is also a trainer at the cooperage school. Like us, he’s above all passionate about his work!
He has been with our estate since its creation and is Blanche Hermine’s sole supplier. We take only the very best from his Ameline range, made from “haute futaie” oak from the Tronçay forest, with extremely fine grain and controlled toasting adapted to each of our grape varieties, terroirs and vintages. Since 2023, Cyril has presided over the destiny of the company, located in the heart of the Pessac-Léognan vineyards in Martillac.
Didier, double MOF in cooperage, and Cyril, who has run the company since 2023, supply Blanche Hermine with Ameline barrels made of high-grade oak, adapted to our grape varieties and vintages.