You must log in with your username and password in La Champagne Viticole magazine to access this content. Your ID and password were communicated to you by email when you activated your subscription to lachampagneviticole.fr.
Repères
- Olivier Belin is 44.
- Born on January 23.
- 1973.
- In Soissons.
- He is married to Katty with whom he had two children.
- Margot.
- 14.
- And Samuel.
- 13.
- The winery.
- Located in Essémes-sur-Marne.
- Covers 8 hectares.
- Composed of 17 plots.
- The grape variety is typical of the Marne Valley: 60% miller.
- 30% chardonnay and 10% pinot noir.
- The grapes are mainly used to produce an average of 40.
- 000 bottles per year.
- And a smaller serving is delivered.
- Mainly to Covama.
- In Chateau-Thierry.
- Approximately 20% of clean production is shipped abroad.
- L? Italy.
- Belgium and the Caribbean island of San Martín are the main export markets.
- Olivier Belin is co-chair.
- With Olivier Gratiot.
- Of the association of local ambassadors in the Marne Valley (the organizing structure of the festival?Notouristic Champagne et Vous !).
- Treasurer of the local chapter of the SGV d?Essémes-sur-Marne.
- Correspondent of the? Champagne Wine Association and Vice-President of the Wine Studies and Development Group?Aisne.
Investing in Champagne and you!
What has developed the collective mood of Olivier Belin is a form of loneliness. “Winemakers in our valley sometimes feel alone in the face of the Parisians who come to live here, who retire here because they find the corner friendly. If they find the area beautiful, it is thanks to our vines, but many times they do not make the link between our vines and our tractors or our treatments that allow the grapes to grow. We don’t really live in wine towns, unlike most towns. in the vineyards of Marne o l. Dawn. Here, our peoples mix. There are people who come only for the weekend, others who work in nearby industries, etc. Be careful not to make me say what I did not say: Do not blame anyone and I do not accuse anyone! It is the geographic location that has created this. But it is true that sometimes, lo and behold, we feel alone because we are too close to Paris. And it was in this feeling of loneliness that this desire to develop collective projects was born.
“I did all this out of love for my region.”
“In the valley, we had never seen anything collective come together. Of course, there was the brotherhood of pinot meunier, but no project really aimed at the population. »And that is how, after some other initiatives, the association of regional ambassadors and tourism in the Marne Valley and the Champagne et Vous festival was born! “When we started to develop ideas to better show our territory, it quickly became clear that we needed a meaningful event, a showcase. The development committee group approached me to ask me to start this project. He didn’t know about it, he had never organized anything like this. And then we learn, we meet, especially local politicians who open doors for us, etc. Dominique Fleury, in her last years of unionism, agreed to work with Olivier as co-chair. “She brought her reputation, they didn’t know me at the time. We take our pilgrim sticks to meet the winegrowers. We feel they are open, voluntary, dynamic and motivated. We managed to put together a good team, without knowing where we were. »The success of Champagne and You! it comes mainly from teamwork. Olivier Belin already shares the presidency of the association that leads the event with Olivier Gratiot. “In four years we have managed to build a united and motivated team, with more than 80 members, volunteers eager to improve the reputation of the Marne Valley and an office of eleven active people, each with their own mission … The work is distributed among all the members of the office, on our technical director, Catia Carriço (Event 4 Business), our artistic director Laurence Lefèvre (Manolau agency) and our manager of press Nathalie Costa. “The associative and collective commitment of Olivier Belin occurred” at a time in my life in which it was possible, when I had enough experience to take a step back in my own work and the capacity for a little time to develop this foreign project. »After three editions, and the fourth to come, the first objective of the festival has been reached.“ The first floor of this boat is not about sales , but to improve our relations with the non-wine-growing population of the region. When a stormy episode affects us, for example, since we met our neighbor, we put on our raincoat and boots, grab our shovels, and go out together. He knows us and knows that we are an economic actor. The second floor is to publicize the region, the doors of Champagne, abroad, in Belgium, the United Kingdom and other regions of France. And also our neighbors! This phrase, for example, I hear often:? I didn’t think there were such good champagnes in the valley! With Champagne et Vous !, we have managed to change behavior. We won markets of local companies that bought their champagne elsewhere, which a priori had a negative of our bottles. “
Champagne and You!2017 Festival October 21 and 22, 2017 Medieval Castle of Chateau-Thierry www.champagne-et-vous.fr