I think if Eric Texier were British he`d have to be a Yorkshireman. He`s almost professionally blunt, to the point and doesn`t suffer fools. He also has a creative view of his peers and how they operate. For instance on natural winemakers of a certain type he said `Modern wines and super natural wines share a common trait. the will of the vigneron/winemaker to make a wine knowing precisely what he wants from it. This idea frustrates me because I feel it leads to a standardization of taste. An overripe Cabernet with a ton of new wood doesn`t strike me as better or worse than a carbonic Syrah that tastes like every other carbonic wine ever made.` Though he`d choose that Syrah to drink every time. Then on his negoce partners `I laugh when I hear people sourcing fruit tell me they control everything the vigneron does in the vinyard. 1) You`re clearly full of it unless you live and sleep in the vines every night. 2)If you`re telling someone how to do his job and he offers zero input and does exactly what you say, I don`t see how this can be beneficial to the work being done in the vineyard.`

Texier certainly tends to the natural in his winemaking but he is so good technically that his wines can live without much sulphur. He has strong viticultural views too, being somewhat biodynamic but hates ploughing and bases his natural viticulture more on Fukuoka than Steiner. (CW 29/08/19)