Each year, a special cuvée is elaborated by a School of Wine & Spirits Business student together with Armand Heitz, a inspiring Burgundian winemaker
Launched during the 2020 harvest, the ÉPISTÉMÊ cuvée is the result of a unique experience offered to a student attending the School of Wine & Spirits Business: each year, one student is chosen to participate in each step of the production of a wine, alongside Burgundian winemaker Armand Heitz committed to working with nature
MSc Wine Management student, Olivier Mauhin, had the extraordinary opportunity to work with Armand Heitz for the Cuvée 2021. This collaboration is based on the transmission and sharing of know-how and passion and the result is an atypical wine: a Burgundian blend of Aligoté and Sauvignon Blanc produced on hemp soils.
Transmission
The cuvee was officially tasted for the first time at BSB Dijon. SWSB students and graduates, as well as journalists and influencers attended the event. Among the participants, alumnus Marie Marc, who signed the first 2020 vintage and who was subsequently hired by Armand Heitz.
Director of the SWSB, Jérôme Gallo, praised the quality of this partnership and the commitment of his students, “who get better and better every year, especially when it comes to the product “. Armand Heitz and Olivier Mauhin then presented ÉPISTÉMÊ 2021 through a discussion moderated by the influencer Valentin Cotton (@WinePoetry).
Armand Heitz is committed to the most sustainable way of cultivating and is developing a permaculture-based working method. Olivier Mauhin was selected for his knowledge and maturity and fully identifies with the precepts of the winemaker: “Armand’s philosophy is very important to me. He has many ideas he puts into practice and values he lives by in an earnest and completely transparent manner.
“This project really allowed me to put my knowledge into practice in the field with a professional,” he continued. “I knew the wine-making processes but I had never applied them before. Winemaking is a profession in which you are constrained by nature. 2021 was a rather complex vintage, I was able to measure that you can’ t always do what you want and that you have to make decisions quickly.”
An original, audacious, and flavourful wine
This cuvee is the result of an original Burgundian blend of Aligoté and Sauvignon Blanc, from a plot of land planted with hemp.
It was particularly appreciated by the tasters at the event. “For a recent bottling, I am quite surprised by the stability it has already found,” Valentin Cotton commented.
As for Olivier Mauhin (@frenchie.winelover), “it’s less subtle than I would have imagined,”. “The aromatic palette is particularly rich: we find a vegetal and floral dynamism, typical of Sauvignon, but also yellow and white fruits, notably apple, a honeyed and buttery envelope which releases the Aligoté. The Aligoté/Sauvignon blend works very well, it’s very greedy.”
Nearly 300 bottles were produced and numbered, all of which were acquired by the School of Wine & Spirits Business and have been reserved for its community