Joost de Villebois

"I grew up with wine and wine was very much a part of my household. I decided at a very young age, 18, that I not only wanted to drink wine, but I wanted to make it myself too.

I went on to study at the wine faculty at the University of Bordeaux, where I started to learn the tricks of the trade. My first proper wine business was in 1996, when I bought a farmhouse in the Loire area, and started to make two barrels of wine a year.

Being as green as possible in my vineyards is very important to me. We try and use a very limited number of 'products' in the fields, and we also green harvest in order to optimize the quality of the grapes and minimize production per hectare. Finally, we use a technique called 'effeuillage' – the reduction of leafs to increase the sun and light exposure of the grapes.

We have a great team here at Villebois, with Thierry Coutant who runs and supervises the vineyards, and Pascal Gibault, our other resident winemaker.

My proudest moment as a winemaker? When well known Dutch Wine Journalist (Hubrecht Duijker) spoke of our Sauvignon Blanc as an 'absolute dream of a white wine.