History
The Pabiot vineyards have been in the family for several generations, and in the early years the family would sell their produce to the local co-operative. Jonathan’s great grandfather Léon perhaps began the emphasis on vines and wines rather than persisting with the polyculture that was the norm, as he had originally also been a nurseryman. With a mind to bottling their own wine, it was Jonathan’s father Didier, together with grandfather Lucien, who built the family’s cellars above the little hamlet of Les Loges in the late 1980s. The domaine was at this time in the hands of Didier Pabiot, and he clearly had the notion that his son would one day take hold of the reins. With this in mind, once Jonathan had finished his basic education, off he went to study at the Lycée Agricole et Viticole at Cosne-Cours-sur-Loire, which lies just a few kilometres downriver from Sancerre.
Jonathan was supposed to finish with a wine qualification, before returning to step into his father’s shoes. But the course turned out to be an unhappy experience for Jonathan, who clearly found himself disagreeing with the line taken by his teachers. Eventually he decided he would probably learn more with some practical, hands-on experience, rather than all the theory and lecturing of the classroom. And thus in 2004 he quit his studies and went to work at Domaine Léon Barral, in Faugères, in the Languedoc, before ultimately returning home to Les Loges.
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