InvestigationGraduates and connected, the youngest get started, taking over the family estate or creating their own. And by producing wine differently.
Big light blue eyes, an unbeatable sleeveless puffer jacket, a wildly youthful face and, above all, a keen sense of pedagogy. On TikTok, the favorite platform for young influencers, Emile coddens, 23, tells the story of the wine estate where he joined his uncles three years ago. In less than a minute each time, he manages to explain the frost episode at the beginning of April, the topping up of the barrels, the inscriptions on the capsules or why the amateur swirls the wine in his glass before tasting it. .
He shows his tractor, details the production of a straw wine, gives a tip to dispel a taste of reduced. His videos are a hit. Over 100,000 views on average, some exceeding one million. Emile Coddens has 358,000 subscribers to his channel. “I wanted to make wine accessible, he explains simply. Show that it is not just a world of luxury and codes. “
His visit in February in “Quotidien”, the television program of Yann Barthès, made an impression: it had been a long time since we had given a tasting course on the small screen. And probably never with so much relaxation. Far from the jargon that has become a ritual in the profession, also stilted in tone, the young employee of the Domaine Plou & Fils, in Touraine, makes wine accessible to everyone, even to those who are too young to drink it. It is preparing a practical guide, which will be released at the start of the school year by Editions des Equateurs.
Wave of retirements
In the vineyard too, the new generation of winegrowers is getting noticed. Of course, they produce wine like their elders do. But their job is not quite the same. The stakes either. They must master everything: climate change, new viticulture tools, development of international trade, growing consumer enthusiasm for cleaner wines, explosion of digital communication… In doing so, they are changing the lines. From their vineyard, sometimes their appellation. French viticulture, surely.
Because she needs them. The average age of a winegrower today is 50 years. It is a little higher than in other sectors of agriculture. But above all, with more than a quarter of wine growers between 50 and 60 years old, a major wave of retirements is looming. In more than two thirds of cases, the recovery takes place within the family. The transmission has a good chance of going well if the parents have already started the turn of modernity.
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