Ep 2355 5 Things About Domaine de Chevalier: an interview with Olivier Bernard | On the Road with Stevie Kim

But what are the what are the elements that makes you say? This is a this is my memory. The soil. The soil is the most important things and the climate. And also the people in in behind first taking again. First the soil. Give me good fruit. I will give you a good wine. Seagon the climate third people in this order, not in the other order. Uh-huh. I know some great pianist on a bad piano. They make good music, but the the the best thing is to have the good piano and the good pianist. Welcome to another episode of on the road edition, hosted by Stevie Campbell each week, Stevie travels to incredible wine destinations interviewing some of the Italian wine scene's most interesting personalities, talking about wines, the foods, as well as the incredible travel destinations. Okay. Welcome to Bordeaux. And of course, we are here with the grande. Olivia Bernard. He wears many, many hats. Firstly, he's the owner of Dominde Chavalier. So, Olivier, would you like to tell us five things about. Five. So the first one is, that this property is a unique situation in the forest. We are completely surrounded by forest, and this forest is part of the terroir. Is part of the microclimate we have on that property. That means the forest is a little bit colder, freshness, elegance, and pure diversity. That's the forest. Okay. And that help the wine. So the this forest is part of the wine. The seventh thing is, Bio, and Biodine. Because, if you want to make a great wine, you need a great fruit, and a great fruit is coming from a great terroir for sure, but this terroir must be respected. So we have to go view and be your enemy. No doctors. But have to say that in the normal year, when everything is normal, we can go bio and bio dynamic. No problem. But in the difficult year, we have to make another choice. So this bure this choice of bureaus and bureausenome, I do every day. We can change a little bit. So we don't have the certification, and I don't need the certification, but this is more a philosophy of wine making and wine growing in the vineyard. So you have biodynamic, labelling here. Just not every year. We have been view and view them in the last ten years. Okay. But with twenty four, and in the next vintage, I promise you that If the condition are exceptional, you have to answer with something exceptional. Right. And Bio is not enough. Okay. So sometimes I have a aspirin. Sometimes I need something stronger. You know, for my body is the same in the vineyard. When the conditions are good, everything is okay with beer. But when the condition became complicated, we have to save the vineyard, the fruit, And the vineyard is not done to be sick. It's not done to have disease and no. The vineyard is done to have nice fruit every year. Okay. And we have to go as a winemaker, we have to do this way. Okay. No doubt. No doubt. So the third thing is, we do here red and white, and it's too part of my head because, the world of white is very different from the word of red. The red is coming from the soil. The white is more from the sky. The white has a have a lovely, freshness when the red must come from the soil with this body with this tannin. So we are not talking from the same product. And in my head, when I produce this two wine is two part of my soil. And this to wine. Right. Number four is, the best wine of my life, no doubt. No doubt is the wine I will make tomorrow. Okay. Every day, with all my team, we work for tomorrow. Alright. And so we invest. There is no revolution, but there is a evolution every day for everything. And nothing is done here like it was done ten years ago. It's not because he has done been done ten years ago that we are doing that's the same today. No. There is always evolution. What is the best for the quality? Quality quality quality. And for me, even if the market is a little bit difficult at that time, if you make good wine at a good price in Bio, you will always find somebody in front of you to buy your wine. Alright. Great wine, good price, in view. Okay. Always a customer in front of you. Number five is one family. One family I arrived here in nineteen eighty three. I've done forty two vintage Only. I will be there for the next ten years. Right. No doubt with my children. I have two boys, Adrianne, and they're they're both in the family business. Both for nearly ten years with me. One is selling wine. One is making wine, one is next door doing the brand of the vintage twenty four. He's a lovely guy. He's, you know, very well, much better than me when the children are better than the papa is even better. So the family is here. Okay. That's fantastic. Oh, yeah. So I have a bonus question for you. Last night, you organized this fantastic wine tasting. I mean, absolutely crazy. So what was the rationale behind organizing these type of blind tastings, and do you do this quite often? I love wine. I dedicated my life to wine. And I like, the things you like to do, you don't count. So for me is not a problem to open my last bottle. And yesterday, we opened my last magnum of, Chateau Margin nineteen nineteen twenty four. Yeah. Crazy. Crazy. This wine was one hundred years old and at three. Thirty years ago, and I opened three in the last thirty years, but that was the last one. But I was so happy to share this bottle with people who like it, you know, because, when you open the bottle like that, you need to have people who like glittery for magnums. You know, Magnum is not a bottle for two people or not. So we had this, twenty four. We had some sixty four, eighty four, two thousand four. So the theme of the night was the vintage four as in with four. Yes. And we are in five, but I call them the forgotten four because, normally, I like to save this year five because we are in twenty five. I can't. And four was last year. Right. But, I still have this bottle and I want to open this bottle of, magnum, of Margot twenty four. That was the right time to open it when he was one hundred years. So it's time. In ten years, you will be too late for him. So it was the right time to open with the right people. So I like I have a big seller and I have a big collection of wine, but I like to open my life, my my wine, you know. I like to share. I like to have a nice ambiance because the the wine is, you know, I know some incredible intelligent people who love wine. And wine is a product of quality. And, around the wine, you can talk about, different subject with many people who like wine and some other things in their life. And the the the wine you you we can talk the whole evening, the whole night. And, you will not do that with a whiskey or with a gin or a rum. Wine has this other dimension because wine is coming from the soil from very deep soil. And this is another dimension. This dimension is a dimension of emotion, and I love emotion in the wine. And, I think we had a lot of emotion yesterday. Oh, my god. It was absolutely crazy experience for me personally. We're here with Olivier Bernard. He's, of course, the principal of domain de Chavalier, but he is also the president of Crue, classier de Crard, and in the past, in the very on Pat. I met Olivier because he was the president of O'Neil Grenco class a. So you'll love for Italy. Right? So tell us a little bit about all these different roles that you that you have. First, when, you work in a business, and I work in the wine business in the wine production for more than forty years. It's also very important to work for you, but also for the community. And, I do that for a long time. I have been on the board of, for more than twenty years, and I love that. I love to give a part of my time to the Antaire, what we call the Antaire provision. That means the the business done with different people. And I think we need to share this time for the group of, not only for you. The community is very important. So I do that for a long time. And, because I love wine, I love to share, I love to meet people. And, I've been in Italy many times because, when I was president of the union, they her with Vin Italy. We have done many things, many testing. I've been in Mirano many times also. I have been also in, in Bodeida recently for a wonderful champagne exhibition. Oh, yes. We have a lovely dinner in the Museum of Ferari, and the end of Ferari puts on the wall. The best Ferari build is the one I will do tomorrow. And and for me, though, on my whole is the best win of my life is the one I will make tomorrow So I don't know who copy, he was the one, but, I but I love the story of friends of Ferrari. And, fifteen years ago, perhaps twenty years ago, I'm I'm very proud of that because we have, made the the two city, Castanito Carducci, and the Leonier, my village here, part of, the operation Pisa Leonier. We have done this two city, sister city. And we have done that with the owner of sassica Yac and is a very good friend. He's, for a long time. And so the the mayor of the two city. And so there's a music, hunting, dancing, a lot of things we share. Between this two village for a long time food, wine because, of course, in Castanieto, there's some lovely wine and lovely food. So I love the story of, castanieto Caducci and Leonio. So what about in a blind tasting? Because you love you're the you have a specialty of blind taste. Yes. How can you tell the difference between, you know, for our audience who are less wine geeks, if you will? How can you tell the difference between a border lay blend from bordeaux and a border lay blend from Tuscany. That's a good question. I, first, blind testing for me is very interesting because, if you know the label because of your memory, you will be a little bit, convinced about the wine before to test. Right. So if you test blind, you have nothing in your head, you have just a glass of wine in front of you. And so you have to test with your, with your memory, with that you don't you are not helped by the name of the property. The labor. And and that is for me very important. Especially in a dinner. I love to do that because, you know, if you sell the bottle of Petris, all the people will say, oh, it's a great wine. Yes. So, you know, of course, but Petris is a great wine, but, it's a great wine, especially if you don't know the label, you know, And I love that. And I love surprise, you know. Surprise is a wine pass. All the all the the heart, music, painting is a question of, emotion, of, impression to be surprised. And the the blind testing is much better when for for that different element for emotion for everything when you don't know because, it's your palates, your testing, your time, and I love that. So to come back to your to your question, we have cabernet sauvignon in Bordeaux. If you go at Chateau, in the north of, of Bordeaux in the Pollak region in, Midock. And we have, nearly the same growth variety here here with the majority of cabernet sauvignon. The cabernet sauvignon of Domino. They are very different from the Kabernet sauvignon from Chateau, and the meadow, and Gravre, and Bermole are making quite different wine, and I love that. And even in this village of Lonia, you cannot, talk about the the wine from the wine from the wine from Obai or Smith Solafit, even if we are in the same five kilometers, say it's a diversity, and that is a lovely expression, diversity, the complexity of the wine and I love that. So when you test this wine, that's a we are in the same village. Quite different, but from the same family. So you can say, I think this one is from Pecylonia because it's, from this region, you can see that it's from this region. When, from Poyak is another region in Bordeaux, it's another region. And, from Napa Valle, is another word. It's not another region. It's another word. And the the wine from a castaneda with quite a lot of cabernet sauvignon is a another word. They are much closer from Bordeaux than from Napa because they are very elegant. I like elegant wine, and the great wine from Italy, very elegant. And I love Italian wine because they have this another expression, fruit expression, quite different from Bordeaux. And this, fruit expression are very, you I I think it is quite easy on the blind testing to say that this is and this is a domain. If you give me this two wine, I promise you that I can tell you. Sometimes I can be wrong, but generally speaking, I will be right. But what are the what are the elements? That makes you say this is a this is my memory. The soil, the soil is the most important things, and the climate, and also the people in in behind. First, digging. Yeah. First, the soil give me good fruit. I will give you a good wine. Second the climate third people in this order, not in the other order. Uh-huh. I know some great pianist on the bad piano. They make good music, but The the best thing is to have the good piano and the good pianist. Okay. And with that, I think we can close. It's a and this is a wrap coming from Bordeaux, the Mende Chevallier with Olivia Bana. Maxie Boku. Avacresia. Thank you for joining us on another episode of On The Road Edition, hosted by Stevie Kim. Join her again next week for more interesting content on the Italian wine scene. You can also find us at Italian wine podcast dot com or wherever you at your pods. You can check out our YouTube channel, mama jumbo shrimp to watch these interviews and the footage captured at each location. Changing.