After qualifying as an accountant initially, I chose to come and work with my father Jean-François back in 1997. As I was lacking in vine and wine experience, I went back to university to take the DUAD (University Diploma in Wine Tasting) and joined the staff of Château Ducla for one year to learn and understand the whole process, from vine to wine. In 1999, I took over the reins of Château Preuillac, 30 hectares of vines in the northern Médoc. It was only in 2004 that I started dealing with buying in top wines for Yvon Mau, beginning with the primeur purchasing campaign for the extravagant 2003 vintage. In 2008, I took over management of the Grands Crus purchasing unit, the department that manages Grand Cru purchases not only for Yvon Mau, but also for its Grands Crus Diffusion subsidiary. I owe my love for wines to my great grandfather, Yvon Mau, who had the great idea of leaving me a part of his cellar when he passed away. Those bottles were to be a real revelation, gradually opening my eyes to all the riches and complexity of the great Bordeaux wines.  My job as a Grands Crus purchaser is a marvellous opportunity for me to live my passion for the great Bordeaux wines on a day-to-day basis. Each primeur campaign is a moment of great excitement for me, although also one of intense stress. Each vintage is one of a kind, which makes my job a fascinating one, and with Bordeaux being the world's wine capital, my job is also very much one of a kind.

After 12 years working in the Rhone Valley at Cellier des Dauphins, I joined Yvon Mau in June in 2003 to work on domestic key accounts. In 2008, I took up the position of National Key Accounts Manager for our so-called "Branded" wines (Freixenet, national Bordeaux and imported wine brands), a job that involves a wide variety of activities: from field operations to office work, from negotiating and implementing national agreements to accompanying sales reps on their rounds and conducting analyses with the Marketing Department of the resources we need to develop our brands, to mention just a few. New challenges, ambitious objectives, outstanding brands and plenty of teamwork, those are just some of the ingredients of my day-to-day working life. 

I started working in export sales at Yvon Mau back in 1996, and yet my job continues to reserve surprises and new discoveries and I am lucky enough to learn something new each day. Travelling, discussing, creating and building: I just love the variety of our wines and the many and varied activities and contacts that go with them. One day, I'll be putting together a marketing plan in Montreal, the next day in Detroit I'll be talking about a winegrower whose work I have admired for 15 years, or presenting prestigious Bordeaux wines on a flying visit to Toronto or holding a tasting session on Reunion Island. One day with a view out over the snows of the bay in Saint John, the next in the Martinique sunshine, but always with the same dedication and commitment: to wine, the living, cultural product that brought me to Bordeaux in the first place, to the company Yvon Mau, where I have met so many very special people, and to the Freixenet brand for its exemplary combination of family atmosphere and international reach.

After graduating from Rouen Business School, I gained varied marketing experience in the agrifood sector, in particular with Pernod and Lactalis. After 18 months in Amsterdam at Orangina Schweppes International, I decided to return to my first love, wines and spirits, as Freixenet, Henri Abelé and Imported Wines Product Manager at Yvon Mau, in May 2010. The job is fascinating and immensely varied. No two days are ever the same. Freixenet has a 360° marketing strategy, so with a wide variety of projects and an extensive communication plan, product launches, packaging development work and promotional activities in bars and clubs, etc. A lot of work has been done at Henri Abelé on modernising the brand and taking it more upmarket, paving the way for big growth in its activity in France and on export markets. To provide the best possible response to client and consumer expectations, I am in constant touch with the production, sales and management control departments, which makes my job all the more lively and interesting. // There are some great projects in the pipeline for coming years and I am very much looking forward to taking up these new challenges.

After graduating in oenology in Bordeaux and working for several years in production (USA, Côtes du Rhône, Bordeaux) I moved quite naturally into selection and purchasing in the 1990s. My tasting activities in the field soon showed me that Bordeaux has many talents that are not being expressed to the full or in some cases not at all. In 2008, I decided to join Yvon Mau, a complex and fascinating company. I was attracted by the extensive yet complementary range it distributes. The ultimate quality of the wine in its bottle is a combination of a number of factors: a good terroir, a well-run vineyard, requiring a good vine-manager, meticulous vinification and maturing, requiring a good winemaker, and bottling at just the right moment.   My job today at Yvon Mau allows me to concentrate on finding the right combination of all these factors, making for a fascinating time and also rich collaboration with all the company's departments.