The idea is to organize thematic visits in the vineyard of Cognac. I think it is important than tourists "live" an experience with us. I also want to show the hard job that winegrowers do all year to produce a Cognac : the traditional aspect is very important and I will work only with craftsman companies (Cooperage, Chocolate Factory, Winegrowers etc..). The 7 themes are : Gastronomy - Cocktails - Women - Chocolate - On horseback - Ocean - Heritage.

In the future, I would also like to organize concerts in the vineyard, gourmet walks etc, and I think there is a real potential for that activity as nothing like this exists yet.

I was born in the aera (So was my dad, grand dad, oncles etc...) and I grew up in the heart of the vineyard : In the Grande Champagne (1st Cru of Cognac). I've always been passionate and curious about the vineyard. As I grew up, I discovered that Cognac was quite famous abroad ! It is indeed exported as 98%, which means than the French drink more Whiskey than Cognac ! I decided then to travel a little bit, not only because it was necessary (I was not quite the best in English...), but also because I truly wanted to discover another culture. Which I did when I went to USA for over a year.

I came back with a better english (and 20 more pounds...) but my experience in USA was so "awesome", that I decided to travel more: Germany and Australia were my next destinations. During the experience I had in a big house of Cognac as a trilingual tour guide (after I came back from Australia) made me realise I was made for that job. I enjoyed explaining the process to tourists, who are more than 55 000 every year in Cognac, but I truly loved my job and knew that this was a 100% made for me.

The idea of creating my own company is pretty scary but I am more than motivated and I think this is important to promote this traditional aspect that we don't usually see when we come in the area. I want to show the "terroir" aspect of our products, and the passion that all the winegrowers give in their job to make the best product they can!

As the financial aspect is always quite difficult in this case, I turned to Fundovino to help me raise money.

I will always be grateful to all the people that will help me realise one of my dreams!

Vanessa

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The fund raising will help me to start my company. I indeed want to start in April 2015, at the beginning of the touristic season. It would help me a lot with all the communication charges (flyers, brochures etc...), the Web Site (buying photos for example), and also to buy Ipads for people to watch a little movie as an introduction to the tour. Also, it would help me a lot in all the charges that we have when we start a new activity (bills, insurance etc...).