Benoît Soulies

The Essentials - Current role: winemaker. - Place: the estate in Saillans, France. - Core craft: wine. - Farm activity is also part of the work: “We also have chickens that allow us to sell eggs.” - The livestock notes continue with sheep: “Sheep have just joined us, so lambs will be for sale in spring 2024.” At Château La Brande, winemaking sits inside a wider agricultural rhythm. The chickens are part of that working structure, producing eggs, while the recent arrival of sheep adds another layer to the estate’s day-to-day life. Benoît Soulies’ role reflects that overlap: wine is central, but it is supported by the ordinary, necessary labor that keeps a farm moving through the seasons. That mix of vineyard work and livestock gives the estate in Saillans, France, a practical character. The emphasis is on the essentials, and on the steady attention required to manage land, animals, and wine together. Benoît Soulies is situated within that balance, where the craft is defined as much by maintenance and timing as by the wine itself. The note about lambs for spring 2024 shows an estate still changing in real time. New animals are not a side detail; they are part of how Château La Brande is being worked now. In that sense, Benoît Soulies’ position is both narrow and broad: narrow in its focus on winemaking, broad in the way it includes the wider agricultural life of the property.