Mario Pelchat, a passionate lover of horticulture and rare plants, had no idea he would become a winemaker when he bought land to keep horses 16 years ago.
“I never had a passion for wine production, but the progress in this culture, with this curiosity about the plant, led me to this production,” he said in an interview with QMI Agency.
To highlight his 40-year musical career, the singer also invited artist friends to his home, to his oasis of peace in Saint-Joseph-du-Lac, to the Pelchat Lemaître-Auger estate, which he founded with his wife Claire, a her successful musicography in a singing tour.
“A great opportunity to take stock and see the work that has been done,” said the man, who is also a coach at La Voix.
The parallel between humans and vines
After the divorce in 2002, the couple, who got back together almost simultaneously, were looking for a joint project to reunite. He then purchased land in the Lower Laurentians in 2007, which required him to qualify as an agricultural producer in order to live there. Instinctively, the lovers chose the vineyard.
“It is a capricious plant that requires extremely careful care. If you treat it with love and respect, a little like a human being, it bears extraordinary fruits,” he described, emphasizing the beauty of the analogy that can be made between man and the vine.
The singer-songwriter and producer talks about his career as a winemaker and, in this major cultural event presented this Friday at Télé-Québec, takes the time to contextualize the events that inspired the writing of his hits of the last decades He pushes the note with his guests. Among other things, he covers “So many Words” and “Travelling without you” with his friend Marie Denise Pelletier, “Elsewhere” with his protégé Émilie Daraîche and the moving “Je ne t’aime plus” with Lunou Zucchini.
Photos by Productions Déferlantes, provided by Télé-Québec
“I didn’t always tour with the songs people wanted to hear. When we leave them and return to them, it feels good. Like Elsewhere, I didn’t sing it on all the tours. If you believe in it and travel without you. But to come back to it in a TV special like this: it’s nice to rediscover them, especially through other voices,” said Mario Pelchat, who said he was touched that he was entitled to this TV special.
“And that’s what’s interesting: they give the whole thing a different color and take my songs somewhere else. We discover something completely new and that makes us love the pieces differently,” he continued.
The performances, filmed day and night throughout the vineyard, create powerful moments full of sweetness. This is particularly the case with Tears in the Rain, performed by Ingrid St-Pierre at the piano, in the forest and under the watchful eye of Mario, moved to tears. “I told him at the end, ‘It’s your song.’ It’s not mine anymore.” It’s beautiful what she did with it. It’s great,” he added.
Produced by Productions Déferlantes, Mario Pelchat – master of his craft, the first major cultural event of the season, will be presented this Friday at 9 p.m. on Télé-Québec.