Henri Milan is a true passionate winemaker: he studied law but later on, made the conscious decision of becoming a winemaker because of his passion for wine. Now Henri is not your usual winemaker. He decided to go organic, and his tremendous wines are a testimony that if you are true to your land, it will reward you greatly. Henri explained to us that the impacts of being organic are truly significant on aromas, taste, and aging ability of his wines compared to non-organic wines. Forget the chemicals, nature is powerful says Henri… Olivier Bourseau: Henri Milan, you took up the family wine estate on your return from the military service in 1986. By then the vines would have most probably been uprooted. Was it a logical choice to carry on and pass on what your father had done, or a choice based on passion for wine? Henri Milan: It is a choice based on passion for 2 reasons: The first reason is I have a passion for the Provence area. I left the region to study law because my father was a legal practitioner as his main job and I was following his footsteps. The problem I got was that I wasn’t interested in doing it in Paris compared to where I lived which was and still is Provence. So I looked for a local business. And there was indeed my father’s vineyard which my father was meant to uproot because it was not profitable anymore. This vineyard was really reaching out for me. I am also the 4th boy from a family of 5 children, and my 3 older bothers weren’t interested in taking over so I did! The other reason is my partner is from Bordeaux and we used to drink quite a lot of wine together in my father’s cellar for pleasure. We thought that it could be an interesting idea to actually make wine. So my choice came very much from a love of wine from an amateur’s point of view and I grew more and more passionate about it. Olivier Bourseau: You stick to organic farming for the production of your wines. We understand it is mostly a farming process without pesticides. Could you tell us a bit more about it and what the impacts on the tastes and aromas on the final product are? Henri Milan: It is a very good question as I realise few people ask it. And in my opinion few people are aware of the impact of using chemical products. When I say the use of chemicals, I should rather say fertilizers. You are going to use chemical fertilizers if you reckon that your farming production, whichever it is, will not be as productive as you thought. So you are going to look for means to increase your yield. You can double your yield with say 1000 euros of chemical fertilizers which has got benefits: the winemaker is happy because he doesn’t have to increase his costs elsewhere to increase his return, and the customer too as prices are not raised and he always believe he is buying a bargain even though the level of quality is cut. Oenologists, chemists and pharmacists from the farming trade are also happy because they are needed too. And the reason for this is that wines which are produced with high yields are not sound and have far less complexity in terms of the aromas. So the original taste of wines made with low yield and I am not even talking about pesticides has disappeared. Olivier Bourseau: I tasted your Clos Milan (Red) 2001 which I found excellent. What is in your opinion the reason for such a good wine, and could you tell us a bit more about the location of the vines between sea and mountains, along with your work on these? Henri Milan: I would say that the location of our vines is fundamental in understanding our wines. They have a northern exposure. So we are protected from a very powerful sun thanks to this, but also thanks to a small mountain range called the “Alpines” at 400 meters of altitude. We are roughly one and a half kilometres away from the summit of that range with an East/West exposure. So we get some freshness thanks to the cool air from the mountains. The other thing is the soil is made of deep blue loams which are extremely hydrophobic. So there is a very good drainage also providing great quality to the vines. Olivier Bourseau: Your “Grand Blanc” wine, is also excellent. It is a blend from 5 grape varieties (Grenache, Chardonnay, Roussanne, Muscat and Rolle). How do you decide on the percentage for each grape variety in the final wine, and why do you use so many different varietals? Henri Milan: The principle of the wine estate is that it is based on what was there before. When I started on my return from the military service, we were in deep crisis and we needed to do something different. We were already blending the different grape varieties before fermentation and that has been maintained so far. We had different parcels each one planted with a different grape variety, and we were harvesting all the different plots of vineyards in the same order because of their different maturities. I then decided to go beyond what we had and uprooted some plots to plant them with different varietals instead of using the same grape varieties as before. So I planted up to 3 different grape varieties where there would have been only one before, especially for the whites. So during the first stage I planted Chardonnay and Muscat, and later on Grenache Blanc, Rolle and Roussanne which meant that we ended up with 5 different grape varieties fermented separately in 2 different vats. Then in 2005 we decided to blend the 5 varietals together because we realised that the complexity was higher when the 5 of them were together. We didn’t have any excess of alcohol anymore from the plots of Grenache Blanc, Rolle and Roussanne, nor did we have too much fat/body from the chardonnay and muscats which was quite surprising. In terms of the origins, they are not local gape varieties to Provence at all but they end up being very good here. On top of this, you need to take into account the fact that when you use an organic process in your vineyard, the soil becomes more important versus the importance of the grape variety itself. It is also related to what I was saying before regarding the fertilizers: you need to reconsider things when you go back to not using chemicals at all. Olivier Bourseau: Everyone talks about Terroir which can be defined by the combination of the location (soil and specific climate), local grape varieties, and local winemaking too related to the location and grape varieties. Do you believe that Grenache and Shiraz for the reds are the most suitable varietals in the area and do you see other grape varieties with any potential apart from these? Henri Milan: We tried Mourvèdre but I wasn’t convinced about it. Otherwise we have Cinsault which we produce already and which is not bad. But for me Grenache is tremendous in the area. This is how I realised about the potential from the “Clos” (one of his best vineyard site) because we have plots of Grenache everywhere including on the “Clos”. We still try to innovate but we end up doing always the same wines! And low yield means great expressiveness from the Terroir. Olivier Bourseau: Apart from your wines, which are the other wines in France and abroad which you like and are of interest to you? Henri Milan: I exclude nothing whatsoever. I bought some Te Mata from New Zealand, some other wines from South Africa, and when I say bought I mean for my personal consumption. I love the Italian wines. I obviously started as everyone does with the Sassicaia, Tignanello, Solaia, Avignonesi, Gaja, and I have now moved on to much sharper wines in Italy. I also love Spanish wines, especially those coming from Priorat which I know a little. What I like with wine is actually the discovery and I believe that if there weren’t as many people like myself, it would have been a long time that we would have had one single worldwide cooperative wine estate! So people need this diversity. I acknowledge this diversity maybe more than my fellow winemakers’ colleagues because I actually trust clients seeking something different. But we have to make sure we don’t do just anything. My personal taste is for oxidized wines. I really like these evolved wines, especially the wines from the Jura region. I started my learning process about wine with these. Otherwise I also like the great Bordeaux wines when they are tremendous! We can quote a wine I enjoyed in the past Cos D’Estournel, and more recently there is Château Du Puy which I like as well amongst many other wines….