Marie Bourdon

I was born in Essonne in 1994, far from any form of agriculture, and my rather ordinary schooling was going to continue in the field of art history and archaeology. Lacking job opportunities, I decided to follow my brother into the restaurant business and earned a sommelier diploma. I stayed in that field for two years before embarking on a tour of France's vineyards.

It lasted almost a year, a sort of WWOOFing experience with winemakers. So I went to the Jura region and never left. I met Raphael Monnier in 2016, and today I'm starting my fifth harvest at Domaine Ratapoil. We also set up a wine merchant business together: Avis de Tempête (Storm Warning) to cope with the frequent weather hazards. I owe a lot to Raphael, who taught me almost everything and who allowed me to establish myself by letting me take over some leases. By the end of 2020, I'll have 1.2 hectares. Working in the vineyard is simple. The vines are organic, of course. Except for a sprayer, a lawnmower, and a brush cutter, nothing is mechanized. The soil is worked with horses. In the winery, there's no fining, no filtration, and no additives either, obviously. My two plots are in the Arbois AOC. 85 ares of Chardonnay and 40 ares of mixed Trousseau-Ploussard, Chardonnay-Savagnin. My first vintage is 2019. It was yet another year of frost in the Jura, and I was only able to make one barrel of white wine using direct pressing: Bogolan. For Avis de Tempete, in collaboration with Raphael, we will harvest grapes in several regions of France. Organic grapes from Alsace, Savoie, Luberon, and Beaujolais, which we vinify like our other wines, by grape variety and by region/plot.