Yann Chave

The adventure all began with Yann’s parents. They decided to settle in the area, on a four-hectare site, at the beginning of the 70s: one hectare of vineyards, and the rest, fruit orchards. They continued to extend the estate while maintaining the dual crop system, so common at the time. Their first harvests were sold to local merchants, and from 1973 onwards, they began to make their own wine before joining the Tain Cooperative Winery until 1978. The following year, Nicole and Bernard Chave created their own private winery.

In 1996, Yann was 26 years old. With a postgraduate diploma in Auditing and Management Control, and free of military service obligations, he decided to work on the wine-growing part of the estate. With tender attachment to his vineyard, he restructured the vines and began to work on the soil. After being victim of poisoning by an insecticide he was using to treat the vines, he began seeking alternative solutions, engaging with organic agriculture at the dawn of the year 2000. The estate was certified in 2007. Today, located at the heart of Crozes-Hermitage appellation, the estate extends to 20 hectares, with 1.2 hectares on the mythical Hermitage hillside.

The first noticeable thing about Yann is his imposing stature, the stature of a rugby man, carved out of solid rock: hard, intact, alive. Like a player before a match, he begins harvesting each year with the same sense of nervous excitement: he prepares, observes, analyses, and hones his strategy. Then, when the whistle blows to start the match, with the first strokes of the secateurs, he ploughs in straight ahead with his match plan, making tactical adjustments in adaptation with the environment. The energy is there, and so is the challenge. A stimulus, partly responsible for the heart-felt passion he bears for his profession.

Beyond the player, Yann is also a level-headed Cartesian. Since 2007, his commitment to organic agriculture has been applied to his entire vineyard, and is the well-explored, well-measured choice of a technician: concerned for the quality of raw material produced. Today, he defends organic production in the name of societal responsibility and the transmission he believes in, for his children and future generations.