Marco Pelletier was born in Canada. Working as a civil engineer, he came to France in 1997 where he first fell in love with wine. He took a sabbatical and worked harvest in Champagne.  “Bit by the wine bug,” Pelletier decided that he no longer wanted to work as a civil engineer and applied to a sommelier program in Canada. Denied acceptance at first, Pelletier persevered, and when there was a cancellation, he took the spot. He may not have been a first choice at the school but subsequently he excelled and won a scholarship.

Pelletier worked as a sommelier in the private chateau for the president of Relais en Chateaux, followed by a four-year stint at two Michelin starred restaurant Maison Rostang in Paris under Chef Michel Rostang. Pelletier spent six years as head sommelier at the three-star Michelin restaurant Le Taillevent where he oversaw 400,000 bottles in the cellar.

He next worked at Le Bristol in Paris for eight years. With this impressive pedigree, Pelletier opened Vantre, his own Parisian restaurant one year ago. Vantre is a classic bistro with a large wine list that includes wines from his private cellar that he has been collecting for years.

During his time as a sommelier, Pelletier also became a winemaker. He had become friends with Jean Terrade and Gérard Pantanacce, who previously owned a wine bar in Paris. Terrade and Pantanacce, both 77  years old, owned one-and-a-half hectares of virgin soil with a house. After over-imbibing one night in 2002, they decided to plant on the property. They had planted without a permit but a neighbor who had the right of plantation helped them, and by 2007 they started vinification. When they made the 2008 vintage, they made vinegar, not wine. They reached out to Pelletier who began helping them in 2009.

At Vin de Jardin, Pelletier is focused on producing a wine that has aromatic definition and no vegetal notes. Pelletier aims to make wines that are easy to drink wines because “wine is a beverage. It needs to refresh you.”

Today, they have nine different grapes planted on one hectare. For white grapes, they have sauvignon blanc, sauvignon gris, muscadelle and semillon. For red grapes, they have merlot, cabernet sauvignon, cabernet franc, petit verdot and carmenere. In the vineyard, the yields are low with six or seven clusters per foot. The grapes are picked early when they are firm with high acidity. Compared to neighbors who pick by machine and can cover one hectare in 10 minutes, their one hectare is picked by hand and takes 26 harvesters three days to pick the grapes.