The first time I met Clément Chevrier he was still racing full time for the AG2R team in its legendary blue-and-brown jersey. He won California’s San Dimas Stage Race in 2014 in his first year as a pro, raced countless classics, along with finishing the Giro d’Italia twice and the Vuelta a España three times. He formed lifelong friendships, most notably with teammate Romain Bardet, with whom he shares a preference for long climbs and a passion for wine.
You may think wine is a rather common pleasure, especially in France, but like their bike-racing skills, this famous pair of pros took their commitment to another level. Chevrier and Bardet developed a genuine curiosity about the world of wine, probably amplified by the frustrating diet that plagues WorldTour climbers. Sequestered to the monastic lifestyle of professional racing and deprived of the usual experiences of young adulthood, they began their wine journey ruled by strict rules. The relationship matured and they finally decided to educate themselves a bit more. And as in their bike training, they did it with above average application and dedication.
The produced volume of these small vineyards are so limited that you need to source a lot of them to sustain the demand of the growing number of converted customers.
Not only curious about the beverage, but the world around it, they began their journey to wine-tasting gatherings, châteaux visits and vineyard inspections…but strictly in the very short window of the peloton off-season. In 2018, Chevrier created the “epi-curieux” Instagram account (the contraction of epicurean and curious) in order to share his finds, and decided to educate himself more formally through the Wine & Spirit Education Trust. “When you are a pro cyclist, you only ride four hours every morning. That left plenty of time to read and study,” he says. He obtained his oenologist degree just in time for the next chapter of his life. In 2020, Chevrier retired from racing at the age of 28 and was ready for a new life dedicated to wine.
Not yet totally sorted into his “epi-curieux” destiny, Chevrier began to work as a sommelier for the Michelin two star chef Jean Sulpice in Annecy, and building the cart of the Holy Chips bistros in Chambéry and Geneva. These high end outlets were probably not the best way to widely spread the natural wine movement that Chevrier loves. And so to start his real project of promoting the new wines that are produced organically with business partner Anthony Gachet, the pair transformed epi-curieux from a cultural window to a small business destined to promote this new generation of winemakers transitioning to organic, biodynamic and now natural wines, selling online and in their cellar-shop near Chambéry.
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