Benoit VIOT - PDO Pic Saint Loup
PDO PIC SAINT LOUP: A COLLECTIVE ADVENTURE
Benoît Viot is President of the Syndicat de l'Appellation d'Origine Protégée (AOP) Pic Saint Loup. This is the ideal guide to the appellation.
After arriving in the Grand Pic Saint-Loup with his family in 2001, Benoît Viot honed his winemaking skills by working with and for others.
This apprenticeship in the field, this work of sharing and passing on, was to guide him through to the creation of his own estate "Le Chemin des Rêves" in Saint-Gély-du-Fesc in 2003, and today to the presidency of the PDO Syndicat.
How did you come to know the PDO?
In 2005 I discovered the appellation through the "Vignes Buissonnières". It's a great event that aims to help people discover our terroir and taste our wines, accompanied by the catering of top chefs, during a series of stages in the vineyards. It helped me to meet other winemakers.
At first I wanted to learn and then, above all, I wanted to get involved in a common approach. That's how I came to be a member of the union's executive committee for 8 years, under the presidency of Guilhem Viau (La Bergerie du Capucin). Then with the next president, Régis Valentin (Le Château de Lancyre), I became vice-president, before becoming president in 2022.
Was it the collective approach that appealed to you?
A PDO is necessarily a collective effort. Even if each winegrower has his own personality, we all respect the same specifications with the aim of promoting a terroir and its unique characteristics. We have a common requirement to look after the image and perception of the appellation. A PDO is a brand, which must be identified and recognised. It's a job of education and attention that we carry out on a daily basis.
What are your future projects?
When I arrived at the union, I was impressed by the quality of the work done by the teams grouped together in committees.
We have working groups that do a great job, bringing together winegrowers, cooperative wineries, in-house teams and all the external skills we can call on. We have set up 3 new committees:
- Vineyards and climate change: we know that we need to adapt to a future whose impacts are still uncertain. We want to make an inventory of current experiments, so that we can compare, share and reproduce them. We'll be working with scientific research teams in Montpellier and we'll be able to share our results. For the moment, we're working on 3 themes: frost, heat stress* and water stress**.
- The crus*** and the parcels: we want to go further in our detailed knowledge of our parcels; identify the best parcels, adapt the harvests and vinifications to seek excellence.
- Whites: historically, the appellation has been more focused on red wines, but we already have a fine range of rosés, real wines that are not denatured. We want to promote the lovely character of our whites, and we're working on it.
*Thermal stress: the vine's reaction to excess heat.
**Hydric stress: the vine's reaction to a lack of water.
***Cru: the notion of cru is used to designate a specific vineyard, more precise than an AOP appellation.
What's there to keep you busy?
Yes, but it's a fascinating job, working closely with the men and women who build our vineyards and enhance our terroir.
What do you think are the priorities of a PDO?
Naturally, the quality of the wine and respect for its identity. Of course, we pay a great deal of attention to the care given to the vineyard. It's our tool for working and expressing ourselves. Finally, long-term economic sustainability is always one of our concerns.
Of course we can't complain, we have a magnificent terroir, a great reputation and the opportunities offered by nearby Montpellier. But it's still fragile and we need to keep challenging ourselves; keep making progress, keep improving.
It's not always easy to see, but to ensure the highest standards of quality, our profession requires investment, hard work and staff... The work in the vineyard is important, and we mechanise as little as possible.
