Clos Roche Blanche: Catherine Roussel
Five generations later Catherine Roussel was the latest in the Roussel clan to take control of Clos Roche Blanche. The domaine had been passed down the male line for four generations, in the final instance coming to Catherine’s father, who had been adopted by the Roussel family. He was an innovator and was an early adopter of domaine-bottling, selling his wines locally but also up in Paris. Catherine and her mother only took the reins in 1975, after his death.
It was about this time that Didier Barrouillet joined the team at Clos Roche Blanche. Catherine was struggling to maintain a team of employees, particularly during harvest time, and so she acquired a picking machine. In order to meet the cost of the machine she rented it to other vignerons nearby, which in the end meant she seemed to have even fewer employees as they were then too busy looking after the machine as it trundled through her neighbours’ vineyards. Didier Barrouillet, a mathematics graduate and an engineer by trade, was at a loose end, and she offered him a job. It was the beginning of a new era for Clos Roche Blanche.
