Thomas Jullien

Thomas Jullien, child of the 1983 vintage, is the head of Ferme Saint Martin, an estate perched at the highest point of the Beaumes de Venise appellation, in Suzette. This family vineyard, founded in 1964 by Thomas’ grandparents, Aimé and Yvonne, was converted to organic viticulture in 1998. With such a family history, it comes as no surprise that the young man seems to have been born with a head full of vines, and signed up to study viticulture-oenology as soon as he was of age. But it was during his first internships in Burgundy and Prague that Thomas fall head over heels in love with natural wine. He travelled from one French wine-producing region to another for almost a year, organising his own “compagnonnage”, training as a journeyman vigneron for a few hours or days at a time under natural winegrowers. After returning to the Ferme Saint Martin in 2007, Thomas reduced the surface area of the estate from 22 to 17 hectares, and began bottling sulphur-free cuvées. And you guessed it – he’s become a great success!