Independence fighter

Hubert Valayer has always loved wine. In 1987 he took over his father’s vines, which had been given to him by his father. What then? Did such a background compel him to follow in the family footsteps? No. Hubert wanted to write his own story. There was, of course, no question of disparaging his grandfather, an authoritarian patriarch but also a visionary, dedicated to supporting his home area. As Hubert likes to recall the good things in his life, he named one of his cuvées after him. He has otherwise flown with his own wings, asserted his independence, worked in his own way. Before buying the cellars of Château de Deurre, he roamed Australia and the United States, and returned with a certain vision of wine: transatlantic technology, French terroir – and, most of all, a detachment from the partisan, parochial quarrels that so paralyse the local vineyards. So Hubert is advancing at his own tempo. A few sentences, spoken quietly yet firmly, reveal a whole philosophy: “I chuck out anything that’s no good – why would I drink something I wouldn’t eat?”; “I’m not in a hurry, my wines will mature in their own time”; “Lots of my cuvées don’t spend time in oak”. Hubert loves eating up the road with his Harley-Davidson. He is also a fourth dan in judo. He loves competing, putting titles up for grabs. The link with wine? The taste for adventure, and every year the fight against nature, to be won with patience and self-control. That’s Hubert Valayer for you: relaxed but watchful. A steel hand in a velvet glove.