Portrait / Olivier Lemasson, if Loir-et-Cher were told to me
It doesn't take much to get hooked on natural wines. Working as a wine merchant with a professional, who is in love with unadulterated nectars, is without doubt one of the best ways. This was the case for Olivier Lemasson, today winemaker. Portrait.
In another life, Olivier Lemasson was a sommelier. The kind who shaved every morning. A routine and a form of requirement that he quickly abandoned. Although not completely. The passion for wine is still there. So he heads for the cellar of one of the first to offer natural wines in Rennes, Eric Macé. Right away, the owner of the place transmits him the taste for good things. Tastings followed and he ended up falling in love with these good and healthy liquids. Olivier Lemasson learns the ropes, familiarises himself with his new penchant and congratulates himself on having come to the right place. The great restaurants are far away, he can now live his profession without pressure, without the flare that sticks to the skin of traditional sommellerie.
His thirst for learning is doubled. Like a film buff wishing to become a set technician, he now thinks of travelling through the vineyards. Olivier went in search of knowledge to Marcel Lapierre in the Beaujolais (there are worse things!) where he did the harvest for 4 years, then spent a whole year there. He worked in the vineyard and the cellar. The virus has bitten him, it's official. Why not become winemaker. The launch took place in 2002 after a brief return to the wine trade in Paris. Les Vins Contés ", a wine merchant set up in the Loir-et-Cher with Hervé Villemade, was born. In order to earn a living and get the venture off to a good start, he worked for a while at Hervé's Winery. In 2006, Olivier Lemasson went his own way, continuing the business and taking over two hectares in the Touraine appellation. He is now the sole driver of the business. From the beginning, he buys grapes from winegrowers who care about the soil, all of whom are organic or in conversion to organic, the sine qua non for his method of vinification. Mostly carbonic maceration for 15 to 30 days.
Olivier Lemasson seeks above all a great drinkability in his wines, without extraction to favour the flight of the fruit. The majority of his wines are invigorating bombs, neither more nor less, even if some of them offer more tannins. Today, with a little more than 10 hectares to his credit, spread between Monthou-sur-Bièvre and the Cher valley in particular, Olivier has definitively thrown away his razor and his suit for a life in the vines and in the grapes. We won't hold it against him, nor will our glasses! >> The wines are over there
