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Meet the Winegrowers
Frederic Mehaye Frederic Mehaye grew up in the Medoc, the son of poor farmers. He learned most of what he knows from his mother, Nicole, who managed 20 hectares of vines on her own. She and his father, Bernard made the leap and bought the old Chateau Sipian which at the time had to give its wine over to the local coopertative. In 1989, Frederic returned from oenology studies and internships to take over the operation of the estate….
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Meet the Winegrowers
Alain Bortolussi in Madiran In 1952, Alain Bortolussi's grandfather purchased the seventeenth-century château and the surrounding 25 hectares of vines, which had just been classified under AOC regulations as Madiran. Over the next thirty-five years, these gentle slopes of gravel and clay were carefully replanted with the best clones of Tannat and Cabernet Franc, and the winery was gradually modernized. Alain, who is the first to…
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Meet the Winegrowers
Aurélien Palthey in the cellar When André Bonhomme took over the family vineyards in 1956, he immediately quit selling the grapes in bulk to the local cooperative, exasperating his father, and alienating his neighbors. Setting out to bottle his own wine meant investing in winery equipment, buying bottles and corks, and finding his own customers. But being the first estate-bottler in the Maconnais had a long-term advantage: he was…
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Meet the Winegrowers
Christelle Gauthier The Dumas-Gauthier family has owned Château Platon in Sainte Radegonde, about ten kilometers southeast of Castillon-la-Bataille, since 1907. Until Christelle Gauthier, daughter of the previous owner, took over in 2011, the wine was sold in bulk to the local cooperative. The vines grow on ten hectares of gently sloping argilo-sablonneux (clayey-sand) vineyards planted in a typical Libournais encépagement: 70%…
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Meet the Winegrowers
Frédéric Méhaye The estate lies on a privileged location: atop a rare mound of Garonnaise gravel, looking directly down on the Gironde estuary. Château Sipian had always been classified a Cru Bourgeois of the Médoc, until the vineyards were pulled up and abandoned in the 1950s. Bernard and Nicole Méhaye purchased the estate in 1978, and planted the first seven hectares of Merlot. But the real history of Château Sipian begins with…
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