Old and NewArt by I
Théo Buravand has followed la "voie royale" for someone not born in a French wine family and not a domaine owner. After graduating with a Diplome Nationale d'Oenologue in Toulouse, he studied business and then started his career at Château Romanin in 2018.
He paid his dues, quickly rose through the ranks to become the vignerron of the domaine. In December 2004, he got promoted to Managing Director. The vineyard has been certified biodynamic for several years. Théo's ambition is to produce elegant, complex wines that are honest and natural expressions of the exceptional terroir of Château Romanin. We think he is succeeding.
Luis, a native of Mendoza, Argentina, discovered his passion for winemaking while studying enology in his hometown. His career began in Mendoza but quickly expanded into an impressive global journey through some of the world's most renowned wine regions. His experience includes working at La Crema in California, Dominio del Plata Winery under the legendary Susana Balbo, Chateau Lapalu and Liversan in France, Cantina Massanera in Tuscany, Haraszthy Winery in Etyek, Hungary, and advising projects back in Mendoza.
Luis is now channeling his expertise into developing wineries in Bolivia, bringing fresh opportunities to this emerging wine region. Keep an eye out—you might soon be toasting with a Bolivian wine, made possible thanks to MVA!
Marcelo Paiva hails from Vista Flores, a stone’s throw from the vineyards he now tends. Growing up in one of Argentina’s premier wine-growing regions, his love for viticulture felt inevitable, leading him to study enology and pursue a career in winemaking.
Marcelo honed his craft at renowned local wineries such as Finca La Luz, Familia Gimenez Riili, and the Vitivinícola Vista Flores cooperative. He later joined The Vines Winery, a unique operation specializing in crafting personalized wines for a diverse clientele—producing 500 distinct labels across 280 clients and 30 grape varieties.
Now, with over 15 years of experience, Marcelo serves as the in-house enologist at La Vigilia Winery. Alongside this role, he is channeling his passion into creating his own wine label, Rodolfo Wines—a brand that embodies more than just a lifestyle; it’s a personal quest for excellence.
Richard Dal Canto was born on a farm that was not cultivating vines and he studied law. Winemaking didn't look like it was on the cards for him, but somehow he began his career in wine cooperative management (wine producers banding together and pooling resources to improve winemaking, marketing, and distribution) and proceeded to teach himself to make wine.
Once he took over the family farm in 2000, it was only a matter of time until he bought plots of fallow vines on a well-exposed local terroir in a preserved natural environment capable of producing excellent wines. This was in 2002 and his mission ever since has been to produce wine in the most natural way possible both in the vineyard and in the cellar - wines of great originality while remaining accessible.
In 2018, Auxence Couturier joined his father, Marcel, on their family estate, contributing to the winemaking process. He is deeply passionate about organic and biodynamic farming practices. Like his father, Auxence is a complete non-interventionist. The estate now creates homemade biodynamic compost, applying it to a third of the soil each season, along with regular ploughing. Harvesting is done by hand, with grapes carefully sorted to remove underripe fruit. The grapes are gently pressed in whole bunches using a pneumatic machine, followed by two rounds of static settling before being transferred to oak barrels deep in his cold cellar in Loché for fermentation utilizing spontaneous, native yeast. Once the wines are in barrel, they are basically left alone from that point, without racking or bâtonnage, until they are bottled.
In his own words, Pierre Talayrach was born in a soft and round countryside, dressed with a mixed green of grapevine and fields. His main view, a balcony with a white roof, planted in the middle of an azure blue sky. And this soft reflection of nature, comfortably installed between sea and mountain, this space of plenitude is called Pézilla-la-Rivière
It is where Pierre learnt how to live with the vines, close to his father who, himself had learnt it from his own father, and so on, for generations. Pierre has lived alongside the vines for years, learning to understand them better, seeing them evolve, grow, and sometimes die as well. When Pierre's father passed on to him the tremendous honor and joy to run this vineyard, he felt it was his duty to make it evolve towards a new destiny. Pierre Talayrach is one of these men, he is a dreamer with a huge heart and a firm hand. in his presence, you can almost see the passion flowing through his veins. He brings to his vines and cellar his own happiness and pain. Because nothing is simple or easy, especially making wines this honest and delicious.
