#121 - Antoine Veiry: Brumont's Next Generation at Château Montus and Château Bouscassé
Wine Makers Show: the wine podcast
Antoine Véry discusses the evolution of his family's estate, Château Montus and Château Bouscassé, in Madiran, France. He details how his gl
Key takeaways
- Antoine Véry trained under legendary producer Anselme Selosse in Champagne.
- The winemaking philosophy is shifting from high-alcohol (15%) wines to a more balanced 13.5% ABV profile.
Main topics
- Second-generation winemaking
- Global viticulture training
Notable quotes
If you wait, it never happens. So you have to start something.
Conclusion
A valuable look at how traditional producers balance heritage with the
Transcript preview
Speaker 2 (0:00) All right, let's go. Hi, Antoine. Hi. Thank you very much, Antoine, as well. Today, you have two Antoine for the price of one. So that's pretty nice. Thank you very much for welcoming me here on your booth during VINEXPO. I know it's been quite a few days of intensity and a lot of things happening here in Hong Kong. Yes. So thank you very much for taking the time. So we are Thursday, actually. It's the end of VINEXPO. We can see all the stands. Tearing it down. Perfect time to Speaker 1 (0:27) take time and to speak about wine. To share Speaker 2 (0:29) a glass and discuss together. I have a lot of questions, but first, can you introduce yourself? Speaker 1 (0:36) So, yes, my name is Antoine Véry. I come from southwest of France. We are Vignerons in Madiran, a very small area. And I grew up in this region. So my stepfather, Alain Brumont, and my mother. own this company since they are the first generation of this domain, Chateau Montus and Chateau Bouscassé. And I am the second one. So I grew up in the company. I grew up in countryside. I learned wine business in the world and in France. So a large experience everywhere. And now I am in charge about winemaking and pretty much everything. So it's Speaker 2 (1:20) a Speaker 1 (1:20) very, very... Speaker 1 (1:23) It's a huge challenge, I think, for me. But I really like it. So Speaker 2 (1:32) you grew up in the vineyards, basically? Speaker 1 (1:35) Yes. I arrived at Montus and Bouscassé when I was nine years old. So I pretty much grew up on the field. Speaker 1 (1:49) We are five brothers and sisters, and I'm the only one who works in the wine business. So we had the same education, work in the vineyard, in the cellar, in our big warehouse where we have all the wine in the storage. And I decided to do this job after a few years at maybe 16 or 17 years old. Speaker 2 (2:15) How did you decide that? It was like you were in love with the wine, with being outside, with the product? Yeah, I Speaker 1 (2:23) really like the terroir. I really like the work in the agriculture in general. Since I'm young, I want to work on this kind of environment. But I decided to really work on the wine business after. After work with my stepfather, my mother, during summer, winter, during all my holidays, when I was at school. And I say, OK, maybe I can start something with my parents. And I started my first internship in 2011 in Champagne. And I say, OK, let's go. Let's do this. Speaker 1 (3:09) This experience for now and after this job, if I can do that. And Speaker 2 (3:14) so you started in Champagne with this first internship and then you did other experiences? Yes, Speaker 1 (3:20) I Speaker 2 (3:20) did Speaker 1 (3:20) five years at school in Bordeaux. And in each year, I had experience to do in different regions. So I did Champagne, I did Burgundy, Côte d'Uron, Roussillon, Bordeaux. And after I travel, uh, in, uh, in, uh, Australia and Oregon. So yeah, I had a few experience before to come back to the domain with different type of domain, different size. Um, so yeah, it's, it was, uh, a great opportunity because my parents have a lot of contacts everywhere in the wine business. And I say, okay, um, I'm. I'm ready for this kind of training, you know, traveling a lot and work with other people, other producers, different regions, different concepts, different philosophies. And now I build my own concept with Montus and all the ideas and the concepts I learn everywhere. Speaker 2 (4:25) So what did you learn elsewhere and that you want to apply in Montus and Bouscassin? Speaker 1 (4:31) It depends on which region. When I work in Champagne, I work a lot with, I work for Anselm Selos. So one of the best charismatic producers in Champagne. Very special, brilliant guy in the viticulture and winemaking and aging. So I learn a lot in the aging process. And I really like long aging. for all the red and the whites we make now. I continue this experience with long aging with Gigal. I work for Gigal in Rhone Valley. They do also three, four, five years of aging in oak with the Syrah. So I really learned about the singularity and the expression of terroir. Speaker 1 (5:21) and how to age the wine in the best way possible, to have something very drinkable, younger, and also to have the biggest complexity of the terroir and the grapes. In Bordeaux, I learned a lot in winemaking, how to make a wine softer on the tannins, how to extract the best quality of the wine. how to manage the vineyard to don't have a huge stress on the vineyard, to have the perfect quality of tannins. With tannins, it's really, really important because it's a powerful grape. I learned a lot also for the marketing and commercial part also in Bordeaux because it's a very specific way to sell wine with Laplace, with the negotiations, etc. Speaker 1 (6:12) And when I work also in Oregon and in Australia, I worked in the new world. So the climate change, a lot in France, in Europe, and in this new world, wine, you have already this kind of difficult climate to grow vines. So I learned a lot on the viticulture also. So Speaker 2 (6:34) you learned all of this, you come back to the family estate, you must have been like... 24. Okay, 24. So you come back and immediately you're like, I want to become the manager of the estate. How does Speaker 1 (6:49) this happen? You know, when you... Alain is born in Chateau Bouscassé. It was a family property, but the parents of Alain didn't have a brand. They don't have a huge notoriety with Chateau Bouscassé. Maybe just 10 % of the production was in the bottle. So Alain starts with nothing from the beginning. And you know, when you live in a countryside, you're supposed to be the employees of your parents until they are retired. So Alain has an education, old school education, and I pretty much have the same. So, you know, when it's good... He don't say if it's good or not. You know, he say if it's bad, yes, but not if it's good. And he don't tell the vision. He don't talk too much. So you have to... Speaker 2 (7:45) Think through it, analyze it. Speaker 1 (7:48) Yeah. So I come back to the domain. I was in the vineyard, in the cellar. I worked pretty much everywhere. And one day I had the feeling I was supposed to be in charge. One day. So I start to work like I was in charge about the viticulture and the onology. So I start to move some details in winemaking, in the vineyard. And I would like one day to build my own team. My parents built a team in the vineyard, in the cellar. Great winemaker, but they spent maybe 30 years in our domain. And I would like to have my... new generation winemaker also. So, yeah, I developed the team and also I developed the character of the wine I would like to make, maybe more contemporary. I want to preserve the style, the identity, the touch of the Tannat on this terroir, the singularity of the wine also, of course, but... I want to bring something more maybe fresh, more elegant, more easy to drink with complexity. You know, it's Speaker 2 (9:05) a Speaker 1 (9:05) very fashion to make something easy, just easy. After two years, after a glass of wine, you forget the wine. And after two years, you can't continue to drink the wine. I want to make something for a long time. wine for me it's time it's time in the vineyard it's time in the cellar it's time in the bottle so you have to be very patient it's what I want to continue to build with Montus it's customer and market very passion for enjoy and I appreciate the wine Speaker 2 (9:40) Like it's very interesting what you said about I felt that I wanted to be in charge someday so I started behaving like I was in charge and then... Yeah, sometimes you Speaker 1 (9:51) don't... If you wait, it never happens. So you have to start something. When you are 24, you don't really feel if it's... what is the good way or what is the wrong way and you don't feel what is bad or good and and you have your parents yeah in the back so if you do something wrong you always something on the back to say they will tell you yeah exactly now they are start to be old they they work they continue to work with me but i feel uh i'm in charge at 80 maybe 90 now So, plus Speaker 2 (10:30) they must, like, you must feel that they