From vine to wine and from seasonal work to a skilled job

« In terms of management, production and job accompaniment, Preistavigne satisfies all the conditions for success. We will naturally pay close attention to the proper running of the development of this activity. Yet this project is not at all a "stunt" and on the contrary, represents a long-term investment. Thanks to the Foundation, we now have the opportunity to back a workforce development initiative long awaited by the local authorities and, in addition, lying deep in the heart of the historic and cultural identity of this territory.. »

Antoine Bouvet

For the managers of SCOP Preistavigne, an economic workforce development structure recognised in the Bordeaux area, advancing from maintaining vineyards to the production and sale of wine also means enabling the persons it helps to advance from the precariousness of seasonal work, to more skilled multitask jobs, and therefore more permanent employment. It is in this spirit that it has taken up tenant farming on an 8.75 hectare winery established in AOC Graves, where it will entirely outfit and equip the seller (tanks, barrels, pump, grape crusher, data processing, etc.). The investment is big, but the 20-year old vines are fully mature and the SCOP will therefore acquire the ideal equipment for its needs, in terms of safety, product quality and environmental conservation.

Well trained and better armed for a durable job

Since 2005, Preistavigne, which employs 15 integration jobseekers today, proposes all the manual services on vines to the châteaux du Langonnais: pruning, clearing, etc.
In this region teeming with maritime pines, it is also active in silviculture (plantation, pruning and lopping, etc.) for a forestry cooperative.

At the start, most of the beneficiaries, who come from the towns of Cadillac and Langon and have no means of transportation, are unfamiliar with vineyard techniques. Concerned to advance the self-sufficiency of each, it gives them solid training, partly through its own staff teams in the field, and also in association with Maison familiale et rurale de Beauséjour, which accommodates them in qualifying learning cycles.

With this new specifically viticultural activity, which is also more profitable, Preistavigne has crossed a threshold. Driving machines and tractors, work in the cellar, inventory control... Its employees will be able to acquire all these skills to become generally versatile workers and thereby better respond to the needs of the vine growers, owners and operators of the region.

Preistavigne, which is determined to obtain the Quality Label of the Comité national des entreprises d'insertion (CNEI), singled out and backed by France Active, enjoys the support of many partners for this project, which extends its range of action and the skills of the persons it accompanies.