Nicole Rolet is the Principal of Chêne Bleu. After studies at Vassar College and career in international finance and geopolitical think tanks, she joined her husband Xavier and his family in the Rhône on a mission to restore La Verrière. After getting badly bitten by the Rolet wine bug, she studied at the Wine & Spirits Education Trust (WSET) then UC Davis, and co-founded Chêne Bleu, transforming this medieval Sleeping Beauty into a cutting-edge sustainable wine estate. She is knighted Chevalier de Tastevin in Burgundy, in Châteauneuf-du-Pape, and by the International Brotherhood of the Vine. She is involved in a number of women’s causes and sits on the board of the Sustainable Food Program at Yale University.