Savannah Vasquez @DestinLogSav

SOUTH WALTON — Ten years ago Celine Lannoye was an intern at Chan’s Wine World in Destin. Now her very own wine – Celene Bordeaux – will grace the shelves of the same establishment.

“Ten years ago I was working in Destin, and I think when you’re a producer in wine it’s very important to talk to the consumer because you do not do wine for yourself,” Lannoye said. “I think it’s good as a first work experience to be able to work close to the consumer to then be able to do a good product.”

Lannoye visited The Craft Bar 30A last week to present her wine to the local Northwest Florida market.

Lannoye said that her year working in Destin – from 2007-2008 – helped her to develop a keen sense of what consumers were looking for in wine, from the taste profile all the way to bottle design.

“It’s good to talk to the consumer to just remind yourself that nobody cares if you have tastes of whatever,” she said. “Just go straight to the product and not do something extreme. Try to do something just good and simple.”

At 30 years old, Lannoye is one of the youngest winemakers in the French wine industry and said that her passion for winemaking came from her upbringing.

“Fifteen years ago my mother moved us from Paris to Bordeaux because her dream was to become a winemaker,” Lannoye said. “I ended up living in a winery at 16 years old, and when you live in a winery you cannot not love wine — it’s impossible!”

Lannoye’s wine label, Celene, got its name from a mixing of her own first name, Celine and the Greek god of drunkenness, Silene. Her wine label currently specializes in sparkling wine made in the wine country of Bordeaux in southwestern France.

“We are the only one in Bordeaux who are aging our wines in galleries,” Lannoye said of her winemaking process. “This process makes a great difference in the bubbles.”

Lannoye explained that the Celene process of creating cremant wine happens in the bottle, and that their process using underground galleries and longer fermentation time sets them apart from the rest of the wine world.

“The more we age, the better it gets,” she said. “This adds more complexity to the wine. We also put a lot of work into how we choose the grapes, how we blend and how we age. The family of cremant in general is really a good value for money; it’s a good quality product – not too expensive.”

Celene Bordeaux wine can be found at Chan’s Wine Worlds across the panhandle in three variations; a sparkling rose’, and two variations of sparkling brut. Lannoye said she is very excited to be bringing her wine back to the place she loves so much – Wine World, Destin and 30A.

“I come here every year because I love this place, I have also a place here on 30A so this is my favorite spot for vacation,” Lannoye said. “This is a very special place for me because I learned a lot when I came here 10 years ago.”