Sélection Parcé Frères

Trading… why this activity?

We have been working for many years to preserve and revive the appellations, both at the level of our companies and collectively, in Roussillon as well as in France.

The disastrous situation of the French appelations and the behaviour of the winegrowers led us, together with other winegrowers with whom we shared the same concerns, to organise a network, “vignerons dans nos appellations”, and then to found an association, “Sève”. In this process of deepening our knowledge of our profession, we became aware of two elements that seemed crucial to us and shed light on the current situation:

Firstly, the winegrower’s profession is made up of several jobs that require different qualities, aptitudes and characteristics: working the vines, vinification, ageing the wines, often carried out in the past by wine merchants, bottling, which in many cases is not carried out by the winegrowers themselves but is handled by specialised companies, marketing and finally management.

Six totally different professions in which it is necessary and indispensable today to excel, otherwise you will get into trouble and disappear rapidly. Marketing is generally the area in which French winegrowers are the least ” successful “.

This activity is also often poorly considered and neglected. Once the wine has been made and aged, what remains to be done is what seems superfluous to some: etymologically, this is the meaning of the word “négoce”. This negation of leisure, this remaining to be done when everything seems to be done, such is our vocation as négociant: the one who is busy doing*.

Secondly, an appellation is, on a terroir with a geographical, geological and climatic identity, the achievement of a human community that is part of a given history and culture. It is through the accepted constraints of this framework that the winegrower can express himself, the real freedom being no longer to “do what one wants” but to go beyond the imposed rules.

The notion of appellation is therefore a matter of a particular philosophy and it seems to us, unfortunately, that the current conception of Western man, entangled in his individualism, liberalism and egocentrism, is a bit foreign to this very “classical” approach to life.

Unlike modern art, where the personality of the artist is paramount, the “classical” painters easily imagined not signing their works. As for the companions who built the cathedrals, the creation of an anonymous collective work was for them a luminous evidence.

So… the fact that the wine is not signed is part of a more oriental conception of life. It is not a question of selling a signature, a brand, something our contemporaries are fond of, but the fruit of a human community, the result of a collective work in which each person has borne the best and the worst of himself and of the others, without wanting to put himself forward, with all that this attitude can entail of ephemeral and eternal at the same time.

We will try to follow this path, a path that requires a more demanding human investment and that perhaps leads us more towards the East than the West, to the discovery of an “ethical” trade!

Marc Parcé

(*) etymology: as early as the 12th century, is used in the sense of : Business, things to do. Origin: from Latin negotium, otium, leisure and neg. pref. Negative.

To conclude, our partners have gradually become our allies over the years, our work as a négociant does not reproduce the classic patterns of wine trading.

Our work as a négociant is above all a work of trust with our partners, we don’t just select the grape juice, we also take care of all the upstream work done during the year.