Amandine Boissel

Amandine is a free-spirited urban skater, but her soul is in the vines. After 15 years in Paris, she returned to the family vineyard to express her creativity in supple, spicy signature wines.

Amandine Boissel, Domaine de Brousse

Amandine Boissel is the 4th generation at Domaine de Brousse. At first, she didn’t want to work at the estate. “It’s an opportunity to grow up on a vineyard, but it can be a burden too. We never had any weekends or holidays when I was a child. My parents were always working and worrying about the weather. I didn’t want to live like that.” But after 15 years in Paris, she decided to come home, on the condition they the estate went organic: “We’ve been certified since 2019. It took 3 years. It just meant growing grapes without any artificial chemicals, no herbicides or pesticides. It didn’t change anything in the winery. We’ve always made wines using indigenous yeasts and very little sulfites, quite simply, like my grandfather.”

The vines are planted on the first slopes of the Cordes Plateau in the heart of the Gaillac AOC. The grape varieties are all mixed up together in the plots, and surrounded by other crops: “I love it because the vines are not alone. We need this diversity. There have always been lots of vines here, but when my parents arrived 40 years ago, there were more crops and only 2 or 3 hectares of vines. My grandfather had to uproot them during the war but my parents replanted them, the local varieties: Duras, Braucol, Mauzac and Loin de L’oeil.” Today, Amandine works 10 hectares of vines, always accompanied by her dog Johnny: “He’s my little shadow, he follows me everywhere, jumping from the quad to the tractor, always ready to attack the new day. Every morning, he pushes me outside, into the vines, his favourite playground. He makes the days shorter when I’m alone in the vines . I watch him sniff the soils, run between the rows and taking a break with me. He makes me appreciate the moment, the chance I have to be here.”

Back in Paris, Amandine studied communications, did a stint in fashion, then landed a job in event management, but she never stopped thinking about the vineyard, about what might happen to it in the future: “I knew I’d return, it was just a question of when. When I was 30, I was ready. Before that, I you’re still finding myself, but at 30, you’re more sure of myself. I’d learned a lot, especially about working with other people. You have to know how to manage things in a vineyard and anyway, I was bored at the agency and wanted to do something more concrete.”

She went back to university to study viticulture and oneology and crucially, she found a really good fitness coach: “Being a vigneron is a physical job, you have to be strong, so I work out every evening, cross-fit, running, everything.” It’s a creative job too and Amandine has brought a fresh wave of inspiration to the family portfolio. Alongside the classic Brousse range which includes the immensely drinkable Colline Blanche and L’Affirmé, she produces 4 natural wines under her own name: Baba Rouge, Baba Blanc, Tandem and Pieds Sur Terre. And it’s a people job: Amandine is co-president of Terres de Gaillac*, a dynamic collective of natural winemakers and the force behind Contrastes, a massive gathering of natural winemakers from all over the Southwest: “Bernard Plageole and Patrice Lescarret (Causses Marine) created this group in 2006 with other organic growers in the region, and now their children are bringing this new energy. It’s brilliant because we all know why we’re here. It’s not a weight that’s landed on us, it’s our choice. We’ve all been able to step back and see how it works from a distance, and we all care deeply about the land and want to produce things cleanly. ”

*Terres de Gaillac is an association of artisanal producers committed to organic farming, biodynamic agriculture and natural wine. Their goal is to connect producers who share their values and principles: qualitative yields, manual harvests, natural yeasts, zero inputs, minimum added sulfites etc. They advocate for viticulture that protects terroirs and living wines in the face of all the technical processes used by winemakers today (thermovinification, oak chips, synthetic yeasts…) . Their approach is clearly defined in a strict charter for quality respected by all members. Today the group is attracting more and more locals and newcomers thanks to appellation thanks to its dynamism and ethics.

At a Glance

Hectares

10

Terroir

Clay-limestone slopes, exposed full south, swept by the Autan wind and rich with a diversity of fauna and flora. The grapes reach perfect aromatic maturity quite naturally.

Grape Varieties

Duras, Braucol, Syrah, Mauzac, Loin de L’oeil, Sauvignon

Website

https://www.domainedebrousse.fr/

Selected Wines

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