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Meet the Winegrowers
Patrick Brunet and his wife The original family estate consisted of these two hectares of weathered schist in “Javernières” on the Côte du Py, an undisputed Grand Cru (if the vineyards of Beaujolais had ever been classified). In 1970, Patrick’s father, Robert Brunet, purchased four more hectares of sandy granite, in a climat appropriately named “Champagne,” located in the heart of Fleurie. “Champagne” had been planted in 1930, and…
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Meet the Winegrowers
Raphaël Bérêche The original Bérêche estate is centered around 2.5 hectares of vines established by Leon and Albert Bérêche in 1847. Successive generations expanded the property, and today there are a total of 9.5 ha in and around the communes of Craon de Ludes, Ormes, Trépail, and Mailly, all in the Montagne de Reims, as well as the area around Mareuil-le-Port on the left bank of the Marne. The 0.15 ha Mailly parcel, acquired in…
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Meet the Winegrowers
Jacques Rodet No doubt Château Brûlesécaille, which was classified a Cru Bourgeois in 1868, would be better known today if the wine were sold on the Place de Bordeaux. But Jacques and Martine Rodet, who took charge of the family estate in 1974, prefer to sell their wine directly, in mutually rewarding personal relationships like the one that established Château Brûlesécaille at “Les Trois Marches” in Versailles more than thirty…
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Meet the Winegrowers
Aljoscha Goldschmidt When Swiss architect Wendel Gelpke bought Corzano in the early 70s, he promised the Marchese Ippolito Niccolini that his run-down seventy-hectare estate would remain intact forever. He made the same covenant with the Marchesa Rangoni-Machiavelli, when he bought her Fattoria di Paterno. Together, they form a 140-hectare estate that produces some of the finest olive oil, sheep’s milk cheeses, and wine in all of…
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Meet the Winegrowers
Guy Constantin Drifting in a reverie of nostalgia, for the time before vacuum concentrators, and reverse osmosis, and spinning cones turned modern Bordeaux into one more anonymous, look-alike, "full-bodied" red wine. Guy Constantin produced one of the last of its kind: Cabernet Sauvignon and Merlot nurtured in the same deep gravel as in Margaux, only a kilometer away; with no new wood and only 12.5% alcohol. So instead of brutish…
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