Benjamin Taillandier does not come from a family of winemakers. Influenced by the wines he had tasted and the winemakers he had met, he decided to study in oenology at the Lycée Professionnel Agricole et Viticole d'Orange and also at the Faculty of Narbonne. He then worked in various vineyards and from 2003 to 2004, he learned the trade with Jean-Baptiste Sénat, who remains his mentor to this day. From 2004, and for the next four years, he was the head oenologist at Château Cransac in Fronton.
In 2006, he bought a few acres of old black Grenache and Syrah vines on shale soils in the middle of the garigue near Villeneuve-Minervois. He then enlarged his estate on the Caunes-Minervois side, allowing him to reach a total area of 7.4 hectares on schist, sand and clay-limestone soils. He obtained a shed in the middle of the village from the town hall of Caunes, which he transformed into the winery.
At the age of 27, he started his own business with the intention to produce "old-fashioned" wines and as such he works organically. The first vintage that had Ecocert certification was in 2011. His objective; as little intervention as possible both in terms of cultivating and winemaking.
Benjamin Taillandier is a member of the "Changer l’Aude en Vin" winemaking collective, a group of winemakers united in the cause of sustainability and respect of terroir. Taillandier has made it his mission to create personal and artisanal wines and wishes to propose an alternative vision of the profession of winemaker.
