3/10 Pascaline Lepeltier: The Philosophy of Wine in Motion

GRAPE VARIETIES, TERROIRS & CLIMATE ADAPTATION

In the face of climate change, do you believe more in the migration of traditional grape varieties or in the emergence of interspecific varieties?

“I believe there is a third way, and it seems to me the most promising: rediscovering indigenous and endemic grape varieties. These forgotten varieties offer a solution that is both common-sense and qualitatively sound. They were selected precisely because they were suited to difficult conditions — notably water shortages, which in my view are the central challenge. Frost and hail can be –moderately- mitigated by other farming practices. Water, however, is a far more complex issue.

In my restaurant, I greatly welcome and champion this rediscovery of varieties that were suited to ‘less assisted’ conditions. Those who take an interest in wine in the future may be fewer, but they will be more curious and more demanding. Large-scale production of mass-market wines based on a dozen or so international varieties that dominate the global market is going to struggle: on the one hand these wines will cost too much to produce, and on the other they satisfy neither curiosity nor pleasure, because they are wines that are by definition industrial. They are no longer wines; to me they are closer to ‘fermented grape-based alcoholic beverages’. So there is real room for a diversity of offerings, where the grape variety becomes secondary to the place and the winegrower, and to taste.

Burgundy indirectly illustrates this issue. A whole mythology was built around two grape varieties, yet thirty or forty years ago there was still Gamay and Pinot Blanc. Today people talk about Rhône varieties in the Côte d’Or… but we have forgotten varietal diversity, and intra-varietal diversity — for example Chardonnay and its many selections, which were forgotten in favour of yield. The Jura, on the other hand, is adapting much better because it has preserved its diversity. For socio-economic reasons (notably less financial power, and therefore the preservation of know-how in grafting, the conservation of local plant material, etc.), it has a very wide diversity of Chardonnay, probably better adapted. And things are moving: the Jura has just authorised Jacquère on an experimental basis. The Loire has reinstated certain varieties it had set aside, such as Enfariné and Béclan. There have always been migrations in the history of wine — we shouldn’t make a grape variety sacred — but we must respect and rediscover ampelographic history, and the varieties that were scorned less for organoleptic or agronomic reasons than for socio-economic ones. What matters is finding the right local solutions, in our nurseries and conservatories, rather than embarking on complex replanting. We already have many answers at home.”

Does restructuring the vineyard also mean a different economic model?

“I believe putting all your eggs in one basket has become very risky, for any business. In viticulture, that means diversifying: not having all your vines in the same place, not working with a single grape variety, not betting everything on one style of wine. Diversification of land, varieties and products — that is the direction in which tomorrow’s vineyard seems bound to go. Monocultures on large surfaces, with business models based on low production costs, are the structures most vulnerable to climatic, economic and human hazards.

What we perhaps also need to question is land structure itself. Some vineyards have been dramatically restructured, with oceans of vines and fewer and fewer players. The winegrower who has a deep relationship with their terroir and cannot simply grub up and replant something else when the market turns is ultimately a force for resilience. This romantic side of the winegrower-terroir relationship is also a guarantee of continuity and meaning.”

CHANGING CONSUMPTION

How do you view the decline in wine consumption?

“The underlying trend is that those interested in wine will be fewer but more committed. It’s a transformation, not a catastrophe. And from that perspective, the rediscovery of endemic varieties fits in very well: tomorrow’s wine lovers will be genuinely curious about diversity, about a sense of place, about wines that tell a story. Techno, standardised wines will have no place in that vision.

Today, a lot is written about wines that don’t even represent 1% of the market, sold at astronomical prices as luxury objects or investment assets: the mythology, the dream and the pleasure must also be found in delicious everyday wines — simple, satisfying, at accessible and fair prices, supported by professionals.

In the restaurant, I see it every day: being a sommelier today is really about listening to the guest. You have to do serious selection work — offering good wines at different price levels, accessible wines and wines with depth — then listen to what the guest is looking for and suggest something that resonates with them. If you do that, you’re in a constant process of winning people back: winning back a glass of wine instead of a beer, winning back a moment of pleasure. And that comes through wines that are good and reasonably priced.”

Do alcohol-free drinks have a real place in a fine-dining restaurant’s offering?

“ I pay as much attention to my selection of teas, coffees and alcohol-free drinks as to my wine list. Alcohol-free demand isn’t just about sodas: it wants something crafted, consistent with the spirit of the house. We offer around fifteen ready-to-drink alcohol-free references, not counting cocktails. It’s a real economic counterweight, and an honest response to a legitimate demand.

Finally, it’s about teaching the ritual of pairing a dish with a drink, that synergy found with so much pleasure around a table. Preserving and sharing this synergy is fundamental to the work of sommellerie.

I’ve just brought in a product that thrilled me: an Austrian kombucha made from the plants used in biodynamics to treat the vines — nettle, dandelion, with a little honey from the estate’s hive. It’s coherent, and delicious with many spring products — including asparagus. That’s exactly the spirit in which I want to work with alcohol-free drinks: products that have a logic, a story, a link with terroir. It’s infinitely more coherent than dealcoholised wine, which poses a fundamental problem for me — wine is alcoholic.”

THE FUTURE OF THE SOMMELIER’S PROFESSION

What qualities are expected of a sommelier, and do current training programmes provide these skills?

“In the US, there is an almost total absence of work-study training, and that’s a real problem. There is a big gap between the reality of the job and what you learn at school. You acquire a lot of content, you learn to taste — sometimes in a somewhat outdated way. But working the floor is above all about listening, psychology and intuition. That is learned through hands-on experience and time, and unfortunately it is neither developed nor highlighted enough at school. The financial management of a wine list is covered, but less so management and customer relations — which are the real heart of the job, and this human dimension isn’t given enough weight in the curriculum. You come out with product expertise, but far fewer tools to fit in and run a restaurant.

We should be judged — in training as in competitions — not on our ability to recite appellations by heart, but on our ability to manage a dining room, a team and a clientele. It’s a huge problem. There’s a missing intermediate level between the specialist sommellerie diploma and the management MBA where wine is just a pretext. Something that truly recognises the skills acquired on the floor through a diploma or formal recognition. Someone who has worked in restaurants for fifteen years has extraordinary skills — reading people, management, intuition — that are highly transferable and will be even more valuable in an increasingly digital world. But when they want to change careers, the world thinks they can’t do anything. It’s exactly the opposite.”

FINAL WORDS

A message for young people hesitating to go into sommellerie?

“It’s an incredible profession. You learn to listen, to read a room, to decode attitudes, postures and what goes unsaid. After twenty years in the job, I’ve developed an intuition I wouldn’t have developed anywhere else. It’s a rare set of soft skills, increasingly valuable, and transferable to many other fields. A sommelier has to be a technician, a salesperson, an expert in chemistry and biochemistry, a historian — and at the same time an entertainer on the floor. It’s an extraordinarily varied set of skills, to be mastered in real time in a social and human space. It’s demanding — and that’s exactly what makes it so rich.

This profession has given me an incredible international career and allowed me to meet exceptional people I could never have met otherwise. It cuts across social classes and cultures. And it has changed: today you can find houses with balanced hours and a real quality of working life, without the excesses that long marked the industry. There is a genuine will to change that. You just have to find the right place. We are sorely lacking trained professionals who love what they do — in France, in Switzerland, in the United States. The opportunity is there. Go for it.”