March 26, 2026

Beyond Classification: Château Quintus, Wine Passion, and Reimagining Saint-Émilion’s Legacy: Nils Vaincot

Beyond Classification: Château Quintus, Wine Passion, and Reimagining Saint-Émilion’s Legacy: Nils Vaincot
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It is crazy interesting to me that a winery as young as Quintus, in such an established and historical area as Saint Emilion, can make such waves when virtually in it's infancy as a winery. Michel Roland (we just lost him), the famed oenologist once told a friend of mine that now that it is established she can grow wine grapes at her vineyard, it will take 100 years to know what it really can do.

Enter the Chateau Quintus, a winery in the famed Right Bank Bordeaux appelation; Saint Emilion. The fertile ground where Chateau Cheval Blanc, Chateau Angelus and Petrus call home, is now the birthplace of the upstart Chateau Quintus. Up start only in the sense that it is a youngin' having only been established in 2011. To have been able to create such concentrated, complex wine in such a short time would have been unheard of in the earlier days of Bordeaux; meaning, how could this happen? It has taken dozens of years for other Chateau to learn of their own pedigree...hear the story here.

YouTube: https://youtu.be/ghXyTJCZe0M

#wine #Bordeaux #SaintÉmilion #ChâteauQuintus #PaulKalemkiarian #NilsVaincot #winetasting #terroir #GrandCru #wineclassification #RightBank #LeftBank #Merlot #CabernetFranc #Oscars #winetourism #hospitality #blindtasting #DomaineClarenceDillon #wineemotion #masterclass

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We should go back to the basics and just remember to

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everyone that wine is all about pleasure. Just opening a bottle with the good

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people at the good moment. We don't care about the price. We don't care about

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the classification, the label, or how prestigious it is. It's

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just a simple product crafted by humans.

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Sit back and grab a glass. It's Wine

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Talks with Paul Kaye.

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Hey, welcome to Wine Talks with Paul Kaye, and we are in studio today in

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beautiful Southern California, about to have a conversation with Niels van

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Gogh. Actually, a surprise guest. Just heard he was in town last week,

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and so we were able to schedule this morning's podcast. He is the

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national sales manager for Château Quintas, Quintas,

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right? And Saint-Émilion. Welcome to the show. Thank you.

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Good to have you here. What a pleasure to be here. Yeah. Yeah, well, you're

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in this fancy studio, you know. That's good, that's good. Yeah.

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I can ask you a question. Tomorrow morning at 6 o'clock, I

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go to the gym. That's my day. Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Saturdays. You obviously

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go to the gym. A little bit. You know, I'm spending a lot of time

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at the restaurant. Well, yeah, that's harder. That's what I was going to ask you.

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Like, how do you do it? And then in America, anywhere you go, there's a

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gym, right? They're everywhere. And most hotels have a gym. But in France, that's

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not the case. Yeah, you're right. That's why I love spending time here in the

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US. All the hotels have the best gym compared to France. Yeah,

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it's much different. It's a good, it's a good break, particularly when you're

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traveling. Yeah. Just to, you know, separate, just

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to turn off the brain. Yeah. Yeah.

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So what's, what's this trip about? You're here for 2 weeks. What are we doing?

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Yeah, I'm here for 2 weeks. In fact, the main purpose of my, my trip

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here today, is being the official partner of the

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Oscar ceremony. I mean, Quintus have been highlighted yesterday night

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at the Academy Awards, which have been— That's crazy. Such a beautiful thing

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for— So for the listeners in Oscar, what'd you say?

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Oscar? Oscar ceremony. Oscar ceremony. French

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accent, Oscars, right? But was that your first one? Yeah,

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it was the first time actually, but that was for us in the group in

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general, the fourth time in a row. So what does Château Quintas have to

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do with it? I mean, Prince Robert of

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Luxembourg is the actual owner and chairman of the company. And

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each year we try to change the wineries we

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highlight so that we can benefit of, yeah, beautiful. So you

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were a sponsor? Did they pour the wines at the Oscars or at one of

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the parties? All the parties linked to the Oscars ceremony

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have been poured some Quintas wine this year. That's amazing. Beautiful. And did

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you go to the parties? I've been there. Yeah, of course. It was not so

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bad, actually. I mean, that was quite amazing

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for us because I'm Armenian by nationality. I heard a lot

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of people here are Armenian. Yes. I've been to Mission. You know about

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Mission Wine and Spirits? I have coffee with them most Tuesdays. Great. All right. I

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was in Glendale. I've been to Sherman Oaks as well. I heard they

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got a shop as well in Pasadena. Yeah, right.

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I'm

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going to visit them tomorrow. The Sinners movie that won the Academy Award, or a

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few, won 4 awards, I think. Last night. Yeah, absolutely. Michael B. Jordan has been

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awarded for that. Yeah. The producer is an Armenian guy.

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So we were very excited for him. His name is Sebohanyan,

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that he won. So we're excited for him. But so tell

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me, you know, when Duclos, the

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negotiant in Los Angeles, called and said you were in town,

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you only came for the Oscars. Is that primarily? Yeah, primarily.

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But as you may know, the Oscars ceremony is hosting several different events.

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Before the ceremony. But then I

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took the opportunity to visit some accounts, just say hi to

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some clients, doing some tasting, staff training as well, masterclass.

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So yeah, I'm in town just to highlight Quintus, share the passion,

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drink some wine, open some bottles. I mean, it's a rough life. Yeah, not so

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bad. I mean, I think you must be

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passionate to do this life. You have to be fascinated with

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wine, for one. It's a product.

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You know, I have these conversations. We'll talk about it right now. That

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is so unique. And you don't know how unique it is until, for

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instance, you go to a place like Wine Paris and you see

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6,000 vendors. It's crazy. And you see all that passion

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there that's going around. Tell me about what's happening with Chef Quintas

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with this environment in the wine world. I have my opinions of it.

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Generally Bordeaux is complaining about the wine sales. How is

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the château doing? Or does it affect a level of

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quality like Quintas doesn't even matter? Oh, not really. Actually, I

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mean, to talk about château Quintus, it could be interesting to

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just go back on how it has been created, first of all, because Quintus is

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quite new in the wine industry because it has been created, totally

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created in 2011. That's very young. Yeah, which was

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the very first vintage. In fact, Château Quintus belongs to Domaine

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Clarence Dillon Company, which owns and

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supports Château Haut-Brion, Château La Mission Haut-Brion.

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And you received, I think, a few years ago, maybe 2 years ago,

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Guillaume-Alexandre Marx, which is the sales director of the company. That's right. Yeah. Happy

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to be there. Now it's my turn. So, yeah, Château

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Quintus belongs to Domaine Clarence Dillon, owning Aubrion, La Mission Aubrion,

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and now Château Quintus. Quintus has been created by the idea

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of Prince Robert of Luxembourg, by acquiring not one, not two,

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but three different estates, three different Grand Cru Classé located in the

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village of Saint-Émilion, with just outstanding terroirs. And the goal

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was to create a patchwork of these beautiful terroirs,

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made a fusion of them to create Château Quintus. So Quintus is the purest expression

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of Saint-Émilion wine. Crafted by Aubryon Hands.

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That's a pretty interesting thing for the listeners, you know, the Saint-Émilion being on the

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Right Bank and then Château Aubryon and Miecin-Aubryon on the

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Left Bank. Château Aubryon, of course, being a classified

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first growth, 1855. Yeah, that's fairly

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pedigreed, you know, uh, history there.

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And then you take that technology to the Right Bank where I

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don't know what the mix, the cépage here is, but it's Merlot

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and Cabernet Franc, I'm guessing. Of course, um, Quintus is absolutely not

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the Aubryon of the Right Bank or the little brother from Haut-Brion.

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Quintessa have its own singularity.

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It have, of course, a different blend than the

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one we can find on the Left Bank. And first of all, because of the

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terroir. As you may know, Left Bank in Bordeaux is

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mainly driven by the gravels. Gravels means more

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Cabernet Sauvignon. On the Right Bank of Bordeaux, you've got much more

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limestone and clay. It means you're going to find more Merlot, but also some

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Cabernet Franc this time. Not Sauvignon. So yeah, Quintus

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is a perfect blend of a dominant of Merlot, which drives the wine,

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but also some delicious Cabernet Franc growing on the top of what we call Le

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Plateau, the highest part of Saint-Émilion, where the soils are

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100% limestone and gives to the wines the beautiful freshness, good

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minerality, a good tension. And even if the Cabernet Franc is

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not the major grape variety in

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the blend, It drives the Grand Vin from Saint-Émilion. It's so interesting.

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So you're up by the Chevaux Blancs side or the La Gaffelière

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side? We are exactly located at the top

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southwest of the plateau from Saint-Émilion.

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So if you've been to Saint-Émilion or Bordeaux in general, you know that

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Bordeaux is quite a very flat area. And once you

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come to Saint-Émilion, you see kind of big hill. Big hill,

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come on. I mean, we are not the Rhône Valley. Big hill for us is

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around 62 to 75 meters. But that's a hill for us.

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It's a kind of— we call it Le Plateau. It's a limestone rock, the

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Moselle rock on it. And on this limestone

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plateau, you can find the top 10, 12

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of the best châteaux from Saint-Émilion. So the

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neighboring estate of Château Quintus, or directly Château Bel

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Air Monange, Château Ausone, Château Angelus.

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We've got Château Canon as well. We've got Beauséjour-Bécaud in front of us.

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Uh, yeah, we've got some— when you walked into the studio here, there were 3

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bottles of Aussonne that someone just ordered for me recently. Yes. Crazy.

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But you know, for the listeners, I just wanted to say that when you do

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visit Bordeaux, it's a very large swath of land. Left

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Bank is very long and takes a few hours actually to go from one side

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to the other, a couple hours. But if you were to, if you were to

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say what, what village would, would be in your

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mind? If you think of Bordeaux and it's

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Saint-Émilion in my mind. Like if I was to picture

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as an American what Bordeaux might be, I

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would envision Saint-Émilion. The quaint town,

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the cobblestone roads, the quaint village

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around whence wine is grown. Whereas on the Left

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Bank, you got a long road and you've got all these little villages in between.

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Yeah, you're right. There is the Route de Château

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on the Left Bank, and you can cross all the beautiful and most

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famous appellations, starting from the city center of Bordeaux, then crossing Margaux. After

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that, you got Saint-Julien. After that, you got Pauillac, and you finish by Saint-Estèphe. It

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takes a full day. Yeah, it takes an hour and a half to go to

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the top. Exactly. So, yes, Saint-Émilion and the Right

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Bank is much different. Saint-Émilion, of course, is,

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first of all, classified UNESCO place in

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the world, which benefits, of course, of beautiful

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highlights. The village, a small medieval village, is just beautiful.

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Downtown, I mean, the center of the village is just crazy

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beautiful to see. But Saint-Émilion is so small, and I'm sure

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you've been there and you know that there are so many producers, so

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many on a very small place. So each 50 or 100 meters, you've got a

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new producer. So this could be probably a bit difficult to understand

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as a foreign consumer. But

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yeah, the classification is also here for that. But we

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just talked a little bit previously, just before to start the podcast,

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talking about this. Nowadays, the classification,

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I'm not going to say it means nothing, but some of

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the main and most famous estates have left the

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classification. Quintus actually is a Saint-Émilion

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Grand Cru, and I have to be honest with you, We don't really

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care about the classification today. Now,

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the classification also integrates some

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specificities that are not directly linked with the quality of the

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wine. And we have to not forget that wine

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is about passion first,

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creating something from the berries, creating something from the land,

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and adapting our methods to the global warming coming.

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I mean, classification don't mean a lot actually for us.

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And I think that some of, or if it's not

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a lot of estates in Saint-Émilion, I understand that. So

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now some people left. It's interesting. It's an interesting thought. Let's

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kind of pound on that a little bit. The classification

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of Bordeaux, 1855, Napoleon III, we talked

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about Eugénie having participated in that. You know, it was

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really sort of a marketing thing in the first place. It was a

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commerce-driven exposition that

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Napoleon wanted to put on. He told the négociants to rate the

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wines. Absolutely. And what's interesting to me

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about the classification of 1855, it wasn't about the ground. It was about the

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château. Yeah. And in Saint-Émilion or the— on the Right Bank,

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the original classification dealt with the ground.

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So what's the quality of the ground? Yeah. Correct. So then, but

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then you fast forward the wine business a little bit and, you know,

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Napa Valley has this, you know, you go up there, you get a hotel, you

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tour, you go on the buses, you do all the stuff. And you didn't really

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do that in Bordeaux. No, true. Before. No, we started now. We started, we are

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a bit late, but of course California is far, far behind us. Yeah.

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Well, now California's suffering greatly because of the, the

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cost of doing that. I can tell you now that tasting room

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traffic is down 30 or 40% because it's too expensive

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to go there. You, you, if you go there as a couple, you know, it's

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$4,000 or $5,000 weekend just, just to show up, you know, to

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drive, even if you drove it 6 hours. But the point I'm making is

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the classification of the right bank, which I think

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started as an idea to sort of support the

207
00:12:47,710 --> 00:12:51,397
idea of classifications, 1855, everybody, everybody pointed to that

208
00:12:51,397 --> 00:12:54,668
classification. The right bank didn't have it. They did it in

209
00:12:54,668 --> 00:12:57,700
1955 in the Graves region. They have their own.

210
00:12:58,774 --> 00:13:02,463
But then it looks, it sounds like recently, and this is why

211
00:13:02,463 --> 00:13:06,248
Cheval Blanc left and Angelus left, probably others, is it

212
00:13:06,248 --> 00:13:09,985
became a commercial classification. A bit, yes. I

213
00:13:10,001 --> 00:13:13,562
think now, I mean, nowadays there are too many classifications. You got the

214
00:13:13,610 --> 00:13:17,315
ones from Saint-Émilion, the Grand Cru, the Grand Cru Classé A, B,

215
00:13:17,860 --> 00:13:21,661
then you got the first growth classified 1855, then you got the

216
00:13:21,709 --> 00:13:25,495
Cru Bourgeois. Uh, the Cru Bourgeaux Exceptionnel. Yeah, so it

217
00:13:25,495 --> 00:13:29,297
just gets too much. But then there's, there's also though, there's always

218
00:13:29,330 --> 00:13:32,699
been discussion in America to do something like that in Napa.

219
00:13:33,180 --> 00:13:36,533
In fact, um, you know, if you go up the road, like just as you

220
00:13:36,533 --> 00:13:39,983
go from Pouillac to Saint-Julien, you know, keep going up,

221
00:13:40,721 --> 00:13:44,411
the same thing happens in the Napa Valley. You go from Oak Knoll and you

222
00:13:44,411 --> 00:13:46,978
keep going up and up and Oakville, then you end up in Rutherford and you

223
00:13:46,978 --> 00:13:50,668
keep going up. And they're talking about maybe cutting those in half, or they've

224
00:13:50,668 --> 00:13:53,621
discussed it, and making Separate this to us.

225
00:13:54,520 --> 00:13:57,812
And maybe the consumer doesn't care. I think so. I mean,

226
00:13:58,213 --> 00:14:01,890
we should go back to the basics and just remember

227
00:14:01,890 --> 00:14:05,487
to everyone that wine is all about pleasure. Just opening a bottle

228
00:14:05,840 --> 00:14:09,036
with the good people at the good moment. We don't care about the price. We

229
00:14:09,036 --> 00:14:12,231
don't care about the classification, the label, or how prestigious it is,

230
00:14:13,050 --> 00:14:15,924
or the last rate it have been rated. I mean,

231
00:14:16,919 --> 00:14:20,500
it just— A simple project crafted by humans.

232
00:14:21,094 --> 00:14:23,792
And yeah, do you think the rating system has

233
00:14:25,269 --> 00:14:28,817
defeated itself? In other words, do you think that it has run its

234
00:14:28,946 --> 00:14:32,703
course and it's less important, or is it still sort of a viable

235
00:14:33,217 --> 00:14:36,990
retail? We still have some markets that are interested

236
00:14:36,990 --> 00:14:40,201
about the classification and that where the

237
00:14:40,201 --> 00:14:43,943
classification helps, but probably less

238
00:14:44,055 --> 00:14:46,994
than it used to be. Yeah, I think so. And

239
00:14:48,294 --> 00:14:51,827
when I was selling wine a lot, they used to ask

240
00:14:52,742 --> 00:14:56,275
in particularly the early days of my, my father's business and my business,

241
00:14:57,543 --> 00:15:01,156
there weren't any classification, there were no ratings anyway. And then they

242
00:15:01,156 --> 00:15:04,849
came out, you know, when Parker started doing the big Napa cabs

243
00:15:04,849 --> 00:15:08,462
and things, a lot of the vendors would come and say,

244
00:15:08,623 --> 00:15:11,963
do you want to know the ratings? And I would say no. I give it

245
00:15:11,963 --> 00:15:15,640
my own rating. Yeah. Shouldn't every consumer just give it their own rating? And I

246
00:15:15,688 --> 00:15:19,349
think you're right. Yeah. I mean, you're going to trust the palate of

247
00:15:19,381 --> 00:15:23,074
someone else, but wine is very subjective. You're going to like something, I'm

248
00:15:23,218 --> 00:15:26,735
going to dislike it. And, you know, it is very personal. It is.

249
00:15:27,971 --> 00:15:31,776
It's very interesting because I sell a lot of, um, my, my,

250
00:15:31,985 --> 00:15:35,357
my extenuating clients that stuck with me after I sold the company.

251
00:15:37,348 --> 00:15:41,118
They've all settled on the regulars, right? So Austin Hope, which is a

252
00:15:41,294 --> 00:15:44,423
big giant Paso Robles Cabernet,

253
00:15:45,289 --> 00:15:48,626
um, they— I sell a lot of it because they

254
00:15:48,738 --> 00:15:52,268
just remember it and they, they associate themselves with the

255
00:15:52,284 --> 00:15:54,739
bottle. And I think that's what it's about. Tell me about Quintas.

256
00:15:56,311 --> 00:16:00,129
It's only 14 years old. How has the market received it? 15

257
00:16:00,129 --> 00:16:03,817
years old. Has the market received the idea of of the

258
00:16:03,817 --> 00:16:07,326
wine and the personality of the wine. Quintus,

259
00:16:07,823 --> 00:16:11,172
as it's linked to Aubryon and La Mission Aubryon,

260
00:16:11,524 --> 00:16:14,457
benefited from beautiful highlight worldwide,

261
00:16:16,956 --> 00:16:20,786
which is a pretty good thing. Then, as I said it previously, Quintus is

262
00:16:20,978 --> 00:16:24,279
the baby of Aubryon, the Aubryon from the right bank. So

263
00:16:24,920 --> 00:16:28,284
it have to fight amongst the best one. And for that, I got a good

264
00:16:28,653 --> 00:16:32,323
anecdote for you because As Prince Robert and the teams

265
00:16:33,542 --> 00:16:36,956
are totally convinced, as I am, of the quality of Château

266
00:16:36,988 --> 00:16:39,633
Quintus, we all decided in

267
00:16:39,810 --> 00:16:42,824
2022 to do a big blind tasting

268
00:16:44,780 --> 00:16:48,114
that has been made in Oswald's Private Club in London.

269
00:16:48,851 --> 00:16:52,026
And this blind tasting used to

270
00:16:52,875 --> 00:16:55,745
put in opposition Château Quintus against

271
00:16:56,050 --> 00:16:59,175
probably the big monsters of Saint-Émilion,

272
00:16:59,239 --> 00:17:03,039
like Château Figeac, Château Pavie, Château Ausone, Château Angelus,

273
00:17:03,055 --> 00:17:06,742
and Cheval Blanc. And this blind tasting was a

274
00:17:06,742 --> 00:17:09,787
contest from 2011 vintage to

275
00:17:09,787 --> 00:17:13,619
2018, to have a global opinion and a very objective

276
00:17:13,635 --> 00:17:17,338
wine. So, you know

277
00:17:17,402 --> 00:17:21,153
what? Only 4 wines— So we

278
00:17:21,233 --> 00:17:24,856
asked the people during this blind tasting to rate

279
00:17:24,936 --> 00:17:28,768
the wines on 100 points. And you know what? Only 4 wines had the

280
00:17:28,768 --> 00:17:31,689
perfect score of 100 on 100, and 3 of them

281
00:17:32,716 --> 00:17:35,862
were Château Quintus wines, '15, '16, and '18.

282
00:17:36,568 --> 00:17:39,730
Wow. That's pretty impressive. Yeah. In a blind tasting with

283
00:17:39,859 --> 00:17:42,972
educated palates. Absolutely. People knew what they were doing. Yeah.

284
00:17:43,630 --> 00:17:47,049
It was among the people tasting the wines

285
00:17:48,044 --> 00:17:51,816
were some outstanding journalists, famous

286
00:17:51,816 --> 00:17:55,509
wine buyers from all over the world, critics. Yeah. So

287
00:17:55,509 --> 00:17:58,514
that's pretty interesting. Good samples. Yeah. Do you think people

288
00:17:59,446 --> 00:18:03,270
in this group, for instance, very educated palates, they understand the complexities,

289
00:18:03,302 --> 00:18:07,126
they understand structure. And so sometimes I used to find

290
00:18:07,319 --> 00:18:11,095
when I had ratings come in here just by wines that they were,

291
00:18:11,175 --> 00:18:14,903
they were on my level, excellent, but not necessarily the

292
00:18:14,935 --> 00:18:18,775
fan favorite because, you know, let's say, let's face it, the American palate,

293
00:18:18,791 --> 00:18:22,592
for instance, likes a little are residual sugar in there, the little opulence

294
00:18:22,752 --> 00:18:26,582
that they used to. But if you take 3

295
00:18:26,582 --> 00:18:30,251
of the 4 top marks from educated palates, you're

296
00:18:30,251 --> 00:18:33,744
talking about some serious structure and some serious

297
00:18:33,856 --> 00:18:37,622
fruit balance, acid balance, and

298
00:18:37,622 --> 00:18:40,362
just crafting nice wines. You're right.

299
00:18:42,189 --> 00:18:45,778
Quintess is all of that. I think is— I mean, Quintess is a kind of

300
00:18:45,890 --> 00:18:49,626
modern wine. That have all the heritage from the Left Bank, from Aubryon and

301
00:18:49,658 --> 00:18:53,491
La Mission Aubryon. But what I like with Quintus is that we don't

302
00:18:53,507 --> 00:18:57,067
have to— we don't must respect all

303
00:18:57,372 --> 00:19:01,204
the tradition and authenticity from the

304
00:19:01,204 --> 00:19:04,941
past like we must do on Aubryon and La Mission Aubryon. As Château Quintus story

305
00:19:04,973 --> 00:19:08,437
is quite new in the wine industry, we can permit us to be a

306
00:19:08,742 --> 00:19:12,574
bit more modern in the way we communicate, in the way we shape the bottle.

307
00:19:12,655 --> 00:19:15,879
Look at this. Here is the bottle of Château Quintus. Oh yeah, it's a little

308
00:19:15,879 --> 00:19:19,624
squarish. Don't really look like a typical Bordeaux wine. As you can see, the shoulders

309
00:19:19,721 --> 00:19:23,305
are larger, even the bottle is quite heavy. And you've got heavy glass.

310
00:19:23,919 --> 00:19:27,226
Got it. This is a 5-pound bottle right here. Got an anecdote on the shape

311
00:19:27,226 --> 00:19:30,163
of this bottle. You know what? The oldest bottle of Château

312
00:19:30,260 --> 00:19:34,018
Haut-Brion ever found was found

313
00:19:34,018 --> 00:19:37,744
by a diver. Really? Deep under

314
00:19:37,744 --> 00:19:41,575
the Indian Ocean. In a ship that sank. And then this

315
00:19:41,607 --> 00:19:45,456
guy came up at the surface with a bottle with no label, no cork,

316
00:19:45,472 --> 00:19:49,304
no wine inside. But on the top, we could read Château

317
00:19:49,304 --> 00:19:53,089
Haut-Brion. So we bought this bottle on the auction, and then we probably

318
00:19:53,089 --> 00:19:56,681
stored it at the château for a few years. And then once the

319
00:19:56,681 --> 00:20:00,354
project Château Quintus was born, Prince Robert of Luxembourg has the

320
00:20:00,370 --> 00:20:03,449
great idea to shape the bottle of Château Quintus

321
00:20:03,962 --> 00:20:07,587
exactly the same as this oldest bottle of Château Aubryon ever

322
00:20:07,587 --> 00:20:10,683
found. That's amazing story. What a great story.

323
00:20:11,822 --> 00:20:15,368
And so that bottle on display at Château Aubryon?

324
00:20:16,074 --> 00:20:19,892
Now, yes. Yes. Yeah. And you're probably the first to know

325
00:20:19,924 --> 00:20:23,646
it. We're going to open, in fact, a new

326
00:20:24,031 --> 00:20:27,818
hospitality department which has just been created like a

327
00:20:28,026 --> 00:20:31,347
few weeks ago. So now people

328
00:20:32,053 --> 00:20:35,797
can visit Château Aubryon. We're going to build

329
00:20:35,830 --> 00:20:39,622
for them some crazy experiences around wine history and all

330
00:20:39,622 --> 00:20:43,387
the past and things we store at Château Aubryon. Because maybe

331
00:20:43,387 --> 00:20:47,026
you know it, but Prince Robert is a big fan of history, mythology as well.

332
00:20:47,171 --> 00:20:50,843
And he used to buy many things linked to his Château Aubryon, but not only.

333
00:20:51,213 --> 00:20:54,805
So, I mean, I can't spoil everything. Yeah,

334
00:20:54,821 --> 00:20:58,478
right. I hope you can come and visit us. Well, we're going to be coming

335
00:20:58,478 --> 00:21:01,324
for sure. It's interesting because it wasn't that long ago that we were on the

336
00:21:01,324 --> 00:21:04,953
Left Bank. And just for

337
00:21:04,969 --> 00:21:08,712
fun, because I knew better, we started to walk up the road

338
00:21:08,728 --> 00:21:12,358
starting in Poulillac just to see what if we could get in anywhere.

339
00:21:12,599 --> 00:21:16,213
Yeah. And you couldn't. I remember we knocked on the door, you know,

340
00:21:16,599 --> 00:21:20,229
fermé, that kind of thing. Now Bordeaux is opening more and more its

341
00:21:20,229 --> 00:21:23,859
doors. I think the

342
00:21:23,859 --> 00:21:27,216
châteaux have understood that hospitality is very important as well.

343
00:21:27,682 --> 00:21:31,003
We are facing a challenging context.

344
00:21:31,532 --> 00:21:34,788
Well, let's put it this way. On the sales. So hospitality is going to be

345
00:21:34,916 --> 00:21:38,589
part now of the sales strategy. Let's put it this way,

346
00:21:38,765 --> 00:21:42,534
and I think this is really important. The success of my father's company early

347
00:21:42,534 --> 00:21:46,223
on, which lasted, you

348
00:21:46,383 --> 00:21:49,398
know, the value of what we did lasted probably through

349
00:21:49,414 --> 00:21:53,087
2010, 2012. And I just wrote a little article

350
00:21:53,119 --> 00:21:56,119
this morning on the subject. When they started bringing in this

351
00:21:56,889 --> 00:22:00,676
50-cent-a-liter stuff from Europe and putting it in a bottle and making it look

352
00:22:00,676 --> 00:22:03,628
nice. And then the consumer wasn't fooled eventually.

353
00:22:04,591 --> 00:22:08,025
But the point of that club originally was the

354
00:22:08,025 --> 00:22:11,748
experience of this guy selecting wines for you,

355
00:22:12,117 --> 00:22:15,872
having tasted everything that was available new that month

356
00:22:16,225 --> 00:22:19,947
and finding the best values. And there was a relationship between my father

357
00:22:20,316 --> 00:22:23,364
and myself later in the years between the client

358
00:22:24,470 --> 00:22:28,061
and the vendor. And in

359
00:22:28,077 --> 00:22:31,748
fact, I shook the hands of almost every customer I ever got

360
00:22:32,021 --> 00:22:35,564
because I was at a booth somewhere. And I always believed

361
00:22:36,189 --> 00:22:39,636
that the success of the company was because we had a

362
00:22:39,636 --> 00:22:43,243
relationship. And Napa does that.

363
00:22:44,124 --> 00:22:47,892
Not as successful today because it's not as busy, but I believe

364
00:22:47,892 --> 00:22:51,226
the wine business needs to go that direction because—

365
00:22:51,579 --> 00:22:54,961
That's a very interesting point. Because I totally agree with you,

366
00:22:55,330 --> 00:22:58,503
and mostly for Bordeaux that I

367
00:22:58,551 --> 00:23:02,125
represent, the estates have

368
00:23:02,157 --> 00:23:05,812
to rebuild relationships with their consumers.

369
00:23:06,565 --> 00:23:08,296
We've been too far from them for years.

370
00:23:10,732 --> 00:23:14,498
Bordeaux has seen some beautiful years in the past, but nowadays it's

371
00:23:14,498 --> 00:23:17,592
going to be more and more challenging for everyone, for many reasons:

372
00:23:18,024 --> 00:23:21,807
context, prices, for many different reasons.

373
00:23:22,592 --> 00:23:26,248
But yeah, the key point I think will be to create some

374
00:23:26,521 --> 00:23:29,856
new links with our consumers and to build again

375
00:23:29,888 --> 00:23:33,400
some relationship of trust between us

376
00:23:34,298 --> 00:23:38,146
and them. It's very slow. I mean, here you're doing a masterclass.

377
00:23:38,643 --> 00:23:42,460
Maybe there's 12 people in it, 15, 20 people. Yeah, 12 to 20. Yeah. And

378
00:23:42,540 --> 00:23:45,570
then that person— it's kind of an interesting thing.

379
00:23:46,324 --> 00:23:49,210
It's really social networking before social networking, you know.

380
00:23:50,092 --> 00:23:53,866
Today's social networking, one tells 10, tells 10, tells 10, tells 10, you've told

381
00:23:53,866 --> 00:23:57,542
100,000 people, which is the premise of social networking. Well, it's the same thing as

382
00:23:57,559 --> 00:24:01,300
a masterclass. If you tell 20 people about Château Quintas

383
00:24:03,403 --> 00:24:06,614
and they go back to the restaurant or the store and somebody walks in and

384
00:24:06,614 --> 00:24:10,291
they see this cool bottle. They left as ambassador. Yeah. Of course.

385
00:24:10,564 --> 00:24:13,534
And then that person then has to tell someone. If they don't buy directly, they

386
00:24:13,534 --> 00:24:17,034
will talk to their friends, to their family. Yeah, this is how you

387
00:24:17,050 --> 00:24:20,838
build the brand as well. That's part of the job. That's not

388
00:24:20,838 --> 00:24:24,497
the only thing to do, but this is part of it. Yeah. And

389
00:24:24,754 --> 00:24:28,509
I firmly believe, because what's in the bottle is what's telling the story,

390
00:24:28,541 --> 00:24:32,153
and that has to obviously be very good, or at least be associated to the

391
00:24:32,153 --> 00:24:35,892
people to tell the story. But one

392
00:24:36,005 --> 00:24:39,616
great example, in my opinion, is Château Bailly, the way they've

393
00:24:39,616 --> 00:24:43,273
handled their visitor center, The way they've changed the fermentation room. It's

394
00:24:43,273 --> 00:24:46,847
beautiful. I've been lucky to visit it. Yeah. And so when I open a

395
00:24:46,911 --> 00:24:50,726
bottle of Aubayet at home and my friends that were on this trip the last

396
00:24:50,822 --> 00:24:54,605
time we were there, their brain goes back to

397
00:24:54,605 --> 00:24:58,259
that day. And that could happen anywhere, anytime with any

398
00:24:58,291 --> 00:25:01,577
wine, right? That memory is made. Yeah.

399
00:25:02,779 --> 00:25:06,353
That's why we decided also to open a nice, I mean,

400
00:25:06,706 --> 00:25:09,479
a very high-end hospitality center in Château Aubryon.

401
00:25:10,760 --> 00:25:14,548
We're getting curious now to see what this is going to be about. You're going

402
00:25:14,565 --> 00:25:17,015
to come? Yeah, you need to come and visit.

403
00:25:18,420 --> 00:25:22,034
Yeah, so you should open the doors, um, maybe next year

404
00:25:22,083 --> 00:25:25,811
for the season. Yeah, so you were at Wine Paris. We were there. Uh,

405
00:25:26,101 --> 00:25:29,910
I wasn't feeling very good, but you know, it's an incredible show. It's—

406
00:25:29,975 --> 00:25:33,703
I guess it's fast becoming one of the great wine shows of the world. Yeah,

407
00:25:34,091 --> 00:25:37,784
I hadn't been to one like that since 1993. We went to Vinexpo in Bordeaux.

408
00:25:37,834 --> 00:25:41,516
Yeah, previously was Vinexpo, exactly. But it's a different group, right? I think so. Yeah,

409
00:25:41,532 --> 00:25:45,364
it was Vinexpo. Yeah. So when you're there, what

410
00:25:45,364 --> 00:25:49,180
are you doing as a job? What's the relationship you're building? When I'm on the

411
00:25:49,212 --> 00:25:53,044
booth, you mean? Yes. There are two things. First of

412
00:25:53,044 --> 00:25:56,667
all, creating link with the B2B. So with

413
00:25:56,667 --> 00:26:00,338
our negotiant, you know, but the way to distribute the wine is a bit unusual

414
00:26:00,338 --> 00:26:03,898
compared to the other part of the world. We, the château,

415
00:26:03,978 --> 00:26:07,778
sell wines to the wine merchant, then the wine merchant sell it on

416
00:26:07,810 --> 00:26:11,117
the national network or

417
00:26:12,064 --> 00:26:15,550
by the importers all over the world. And then these importers are going to share

418
00:26:15,598 --> 00:26:19,420
it with the cavists, with the restaurants, the hotels, things

419
00:26:19,436 --> 00:26:23,066
like that. So we're quite far from the last consumer.

420
00:26:23,130 --> 00:26:26,230
So being able to meet them directly in Wine Paris, first of all,

421
00:26:27,001 --> 00:26:30,599
you earn maybe 6 months of appointments because everyone's there. Yeah, right.

422
00:26:30,679 --> 00:26:34,389
That's true. It's not so bad for everyone, I think. So

423
00:26:34,389 --> 00:26:38,066
first of all, We meet the professionals, the négociants,

424
00:26:38,146 --> 00:26:41,918
our first clients. And then we have the opportunity to meet

425
00:26:41,918 --> 00:26:45,675
also the clients from our négociants, the sommeliers.

426
00:26:46,429 --> 00:26:50,105
First of all, we can see the importers as well. So yeah, it's a

427
00:26:50,122 --> 00:26:53,942
beautiful place where everyone's meeting, sharing its passion for wine,

428
00:26:54,857 --> 00:26:58,469
doing the business, and making, I mean, things go

429
00:26:58,469 --> 00:27:02,258
ahead. It seems to me, and I wrote this up

430
00:27:02,546 --> 00:27:06,315
after I left. Let me see if I can articulate this

431
00:27:06,315 --> 00:27:09,875
properly, because it is like the consumer

432
00:27:10,340 --> 00:27:14,109
having that moment at a restaurant where the sommelier explains a

433
00:27:14,269 --> 00:27:18,118
wine or that they had visited, and when they taste that

434
00:27:18,118 --> 00:27:21,951
wine again, their memory gets triggered. It's the same thing at a

435
00:27:21,951 --> 00:27:25,704
show like that at a different level. But I came away saying,

436
00:27:26,522 --> 00:27:29,851
I don't care how much AI how much social

437
00:27:29,851 --> 00:27:32,846
networking, how much content you're creating on the fly.

438
00:27:33,473 --> 00:27:37,192
Nothing replaces that handshake. You're right.

439
00:27:37,482 --> 00:27:40,735
That you made at the booth. Wine Paris as well is also kind of speed

440
00:27:40,799 --> 00:27:44,149
dating. So you have to be ready for that because people have generally

441
00:27:44,906 --> 00:27:46,951
a long journey in

442
00:27:47,064 --> 00:27:50,531
front of them. So yeah, you have to be precise, quick,

443
00:27:51,111 --> 00:27:54,850
and yeah, it's hard work. Oh, I mean, you're saying the same. No,

444
00:27:55,537 --> 00:27:59,047
it's not really hard work. I would say it's It's very exciting to be there,

445
00:27:59,144 --> 00:28:02,984
I would say. Were you pouring in the Bordeaux booth where you could

446
00:28:03,048 --> 00:28:06,679
taste? Yeah, absolutely. I didn't see— We were located— In fact,

447
00:28:06,920 --> 00:28:10,536
we had two booths, one for our wine merchant company,

448
00:28:10,600 --> 00:28:14,408
Clarence Dillon Wines, and another one where

449
00:28:14,456 --> 00:28:17,654
I was located on the second floor with the Champagne region

450
00:28:18,730 --> 00:28:21,703
on the PFV, Primum Familiae Vini booth, the

451
00:28:21,703 --> 00:28:25,478
group we are part of. Yeah, I was telling one of my

452
00:28:25,478 --> 00:28:29,270
collector clients, I said, he goes, I want to go next year. I

453
00:28:29,270 --> 00:28:33,078
said, it's really from a consumer standpoint, it would be overwhelming.

454
00:28:34,155 --> 00:28:37,658
But man, when he walked into that one Bordeaux booth where all the left, mostly

455
00:28:37,674 --> 00:28:41,385
Left Bank, that's why I asked the question. Everybody was there and you could

456
00:28:41,385 --> 00:28:45,209
taste whatever you wanted. I mean, if it was Haut-Brion or Château Bailly

457
00:28:45,225 --> 00:28:48,728
or Lafitte or Mouton, it was all there. It was like a

458
00:28:48,937 --> 00:28:52,659
candy store. Yeah. You know, and I have to tell you, in LA,

459
00:28:54,054 --> 00:28:57,502
the people that vend these now, so I wanna just for the listeners point out

460
00:28:57,502 --> 00:29:01,254
that the négociant methodology has been around

461
00:29:01,350 --> 00:29:04,718
Bordeaux since its inception as a wine merchant,

462
00:29:04,734 --> 00:29:08,550
meaning many, many vendors in Los Angeles carry

463
00:29:09,945 --> 00:29:13,601
the wines of Bordeaux, France, and they can all carry the same stuff. Lafitte is

464
00:29:13,714 --> 00:29:17,498
carried by many people. Aubriands is carried by many people. It's an open market. Absolutely.

465
00:29:17,546 --> 00:29:21,090
Yeah. And compared to a Napa wine where once you sign on with a

466
00:29:21,090 --> 00:29:24,794
distributor, They're usually exclusive and that's the end of it. So it's kind of

467
00:29:24,794 --> 00:29:28,194
interesting deal that's different. Yeah, that's what I said

468
00:29:28,226 --> 00:29:32,059
previously. Bordeaux way to distribute the wine is an open market.

469
00:29:32,139 --> 00:29:35,828
Yeah, it's really interesting. If you're a sommelier, for example, you can have, I don't

470
00:29:35,828 --> 00:29:39,099
know, 20 négociants coming to you selling you the same wines.

471
00:29:39,613 --> 00:29:43,365
So the way when I choose, when somebody asks me for some

472
00:29:43,365 --> 00:29:47,022
Haut-Brion, for instance, and I choose the vendor for them,

473
00:29:48,433 --> 00:29:52,201
I tend to explain to the client that I

474
00:29:52,201 --> 00:29:55,119
want to make sure that we're getting authentic wines. And so it needs to be

475
00:29:55,119 --> 00:29:58,807
the most direct route from the winery to their

476
00:29:58,856 --> 00:30:02,704
cellar. Yeah. And that we know we can protect the provenance that

477
00:30:02,704 --> 00:30:06,264
it came from, uh, Obriano, Quintas, to the

478
00:30:06,472 --> 00:30:10,241
négociant, to their cellar. And that's the most important feature. This

479
00:30:10,241 --> 00:30:13,993
used to be a big problem, the fake bottles. But nowadays with the technology, we

480
00:30:13,993 --> 00:30:17,765
have some specific things that I can tell, of course, on the

481
00:30:17,781 --> 00:30:21,395
label, on the bottle, on the glass, to make sure and to identify the

482
00:30:21,395 --> 00:30:24,736
bottle once you get it. You know, you're in the neighborhood of

483
00:30:25,234 --> 00:30:28,414
Rudy. You know Rudy Kirwan, the guy, the famous

484
00:30:29,410 --> 00:30:33,185
profiteer from fake wines? Of course. He was right here. You're

485
00:30:33,185 --> 00:30:36,381
literally 2 miles away from it. Come on.

486
00:30:36,654 --> 00:30:40,316
And they found his house here, and the windows were covered

487
00:30:40,349 --> 00:30:44,008
with foil. And they found his recipes. Have you ever

488
00:30:44,040 --> 00:30:47,699
hosted him? No, but my friend had dinner with him

489
00:30:48,036 --> 00:30:51,503
in Singapore. He's back in Singapore or something. Anyway, it's not why we're here. Let's

490
00:30:51,503 --> 00:30:55,274
talk about this. So it's interesting to me that you

491
00:30:55,274 --> 00:30:59,110
can— well, I can understand the backing of a

492
00:30:59,110 --> 00:31:02,881
Château Haut-Brion, Mission Haut-Brion, you

493
00:31:02,881 --> 00:31:06,235
know, going to the Right Bank, starting a winery. But it still

494
00:31:06,347 --> 00:31:10,150
takes time. I mean, you still have to find your

495
00:31:10,182 --> 00:31:13,599
footing, find out what you want to represent, find out what that

496
00:31:13,631 --> 00:31:17,096
terroir is gonna be. Are we still in the early

497
00:31:17,096 --> 00:31:20,674
stages of what this wine's gonna be? Oh, in my opinion,

498
00:31:20,722 --> 00:31:24,316
starting from 2015, Quintus is

499
00:31:24,316 --> 00:31:27,941
something absolutely serious. The wine is just outstanding. On the very

500
00:31:27,941 --> 00:31:31,615
first vintages, the wine have been really well produced by the

501
00:31:31,615 --> 00:31:35,326
teams, but I can tell Starting

502
00:31:35,358 --> 00:31:39,000
from 2015, wow, that's something else. On the nose alone. It's a

503
00:31:39,000 --> 00:31:42,439
great vintage anyway. Yeah, beautiful. '16 as well. I took a

504
00:31:42,439 --> 00:31:46,153
bottle of '16 with me, so if you want just to share a

505
00:31:46,153 --> 00:31:48,898
glass, I'd be delighted to. Yes, I would love to taste it.

506
00:31:50,690 --> 00:31:54,450
What was your personal track to get this? Were you in the wine trade

507
00:31:54,482 --> 00:31:58,242
before this job? What were you doing? Yeah, I grew up in the vines

508
00:31:58,758 --> 00:32:02,297
in the Médoc on my father's side. Some of my

509
00:32:02,345 --> 00:32:06,048
family were involved in the wine industry, so I grew up in the

510
00:32:06,048 --> 00:32:09,799
vine. And then, I mean, from a year to another, I finally decided to

511
00:32:09,799 --> 00:32:13,069
make that job. So I started my journey in the wine industry

512
00:32:13,566 --> 00:32:17,141
at the fantastic Château de Reignac, maybe you heard about this one? Oh, yeah, of

513
00:32:17,157 --> 00:32:20,908
course. Owned by the Vattelot family, and their son Quentin

514
00:32:20,940 --> 00:32:24,242
lives there in Los Angeles. Anyway, so I started there as an

515
00:32:24,242 --> 00:32:27,915
apprenticeship for a year and a half, something like that. Then I switched

516
00:32:27,915 --> 00:32:31,736
to Chanel Group. Some people know that Chanel owns

517
00:32:32,090 --> 00:32:35,831
Château Rosan-Séglaire, Château Canon, Château Berliquet as

518
00:32:35,943 --> 00:32:39,605
well, and most recently, Domaine de l'Île in

519
00:32:39,637 --> 00:32:43,378
Porquerolles, small Iceland in south of France. Anyway, I was

520
00:32:43,491 --> 00:32:47,296
working 4 years with them, not with the estate, but for

521
00:32:47,328 --> 00:32:51,118
their one merchant company. The name is Ulysse Cazabonne. It's a négociant.

522
00:32:52,563 --> 00:32:56,174
Then I moved to Dourt Group, an iconic Iconic

523
00:32:56,174 --> 00:32:59,987
Group in Bordeaux, owning 8 estates in total. 4 years

524
00:33:00,084 --> 00:33:03,545
as well, and more recently joining 2 years ago Domaine

525
00:33:03,545 --> 00:33:07,311
Clavin-Syllan as sales manager for Château Quintus. Wow, congratulations. That's a

526
00:33:07,311 --> 00:33:11,124
pretty fast track to do all that. Driven by passion.

527
00:33:11,717 --> 00:33:14,458
By passion. Let's talk about that for a second.

528
00:33:16,028 --> 00:33:19,650
I had Monsieur Clouet on the show. I was at

529
00:33:19,650 --> 00:33:22,346
Château Cheval Blanc and Got to sit with him and

530
00:33:23,647 --> 00:33:27,358
have lunch in the vineyard, which was amazing. But I

531
00:33:27,358 --> 00:33:31,134
also had a gentleman named Zaya Unan here sitting

532
00:33:31,134 --> 00:33:34,781
where you're sitting, an Iranian immigrant to America, amazing

533
00:33:35,135 --> 00:33:38,814
gentleman, brilliant engineer who wanted

534
00:33:38,910 --> 00:33:42,542
to get into the luxury brands of the

535
00:33:42,606 --> 00:33:46,414
world. Okay. So he has his own Cuban cigar line. He has his

536
00:33:46,478 --> 00:33:50,140
own scotch line. And he bought, and I thought this was very interesting,

537
00:33:50,253 --> 00:33:53,722
he went right to Saint-Émilion. Now he has Château Zaya.

538
00:33:54,333 --> 00:33:57,883
I heard about it. That's why, I mean, I heard more recently

539
00:33:57,883 --> 00:34:01,577
because I didn't really know about that estate, but all the wine shop and liquor

540
00:34:01,577 --> 00:34:05,031
shop I visited during my trip here, I seen this label.

541
00:34:05,850 --> 00:34:09,544
It's a golden one. Golden black. Yeah, I've seen it. Okay,

542
00:34:09,608 --> 00:34:13,446
that's so interesting. I'll tell you why. I never tasted this estate. Well, it's

543
00:34:13,446 --> 00:34:16,978
new to America and it's distributed by a very young, small

544
00:34:16,978 --> 00:34:20,542
group of importer and distributor. Okay. But here, but

545
00:34:20,590 --> 00:34:24,330
here's two things. One, I thought it was fascinating that

546
00:34:24,523 --> 00:34:27,958
he wants to build a luxury brand of everything

547
00:34:28,151 --> 00:34:31,811
like LVMH or Chanel. I see. So that's his goal.

548
00:34:32,565 --> 00:34:36,081
Now, he's, he's very wealthy. He's made a lot of money in engineering. And so

549
00:34:36,081 --> 00:34:39,372
the first thing he did on the wine side was go to Sant'Emilion. And I

550
00:34:39,388 --> 00:34:43,048
forgot how many hectares he has. Quite a bit. Okay. Three different properties.

551
00:34:44,110 --> 00:34:47,821
And then cigars and all that kind of stuff. But his point to

552
00:34:47,821 --> 00:34:50,841
me was, because of my background, his background,

553
00:34:51,435 --> 00:34:55,034
he created jet engines, you know, for

554
00:34:55,034 --> 00:34:58,633
General Electric, stuff like this, was all I had to do is pick up the

555
00:34:58,649 --> 00:35:02,424
phone and call anybody I want and say, you're going to get my

556
00:35:02,424 --> 00:35:06,200
wines. And when you tell me you saw them here, I didn't. I've never

557
00:35:06,200 --> 00:35:09,831
seen them on the shelf. But Shadow Quintus? No.

558
00:35:10,216 --> 00:35:13,909
Oh, sorry. Zaya. Château Zaya. So that's why that was the

559
00:35:13,909 --> 00:35:17,586
question. Like, how did you— you have heard of it, which is pretty fascinating.

560
00:35:17,699 --> 00:35:21,375
But anyway, the point I'm making is that Mission Wine Shop, where again? Yeah, he

561
00:35:21,375 --> 00:35:24,763
would go to Mission for sure. Remedy, probably somewhere else as well. I don't remember.

562
00:35:24,844 --> 00:35:28,264
Maybe at Wallis. So why do you think the

563
00:35:28,280 --> 00:35:31,539
Chanels and the LVMHs of the world, are they

564
00:35:32,631 --> 00:35:36,371
still pursuing wineries and Because I heard that

565
00:35:36,627 --> 00:35:40,378
some are selling off because that sector is

566
00:35:40,490 --> 00:35:43,743
just not that profitable anymore, as profitable as it was.

567
00:35:44,481 --> 00:35:48,199
Or is it part of the bigger picture of a luxury brand to have a

568
00:35:48,199 --> 00:35:51,709
château like this? Yeah, probably. I mean, I'm not in their

569
00:35:51,709 --> 00:35:55,555
strategy, but I mean, it's also an investment

570
00:35:55,555 --> 00:35:57,639
buying an estate, developing it.

571
00:35:59,867 --> 00:36:03,521
And once you get money to help your salesperson, your

572
00:36:03,569 --> 00:36:06,584
team on the ground, on the field, to produce the best wine as they can.

573
00:36:07,242 --> 00:36:11,077
Most of the time it works. Wine is just all about time

574
00:36:11,173 --> 00:36:14,928
as well. We have to be patient. Quintus, for example, Quintus have been

575
00:36:15,442 --> 00:36:19,101
born in 2011. That's fascinating. So new in the wine industry.

576
00:36:19,470 --> 00:36:23,273
So we have to, we must have a very long-term

577
00:36:23,305 --> 00:36:27,092
vision. We're just a step in this wine industry.

578
00:36:27,894 --> 00:36:31,360
So I probably going to be there for, I don't know, the next

579
00:36:31,665 --> 00:36:35,340
30 years in the wine industry, 40 years maybe. But then, I mean, the château,

580
00:36:36,383 --> 00:36:39,847
still here, you know. So the story continues. We

581
00:36:40,151 --> 00:36:43,936
must have a long-term vision. So I think that for this big and main group

582
00:36:43,936 --> 00:36:47,577
like Chanel, you said, or I don't know, LVMH, they have this

583
00:36:47,689 --> 00:36:50,768
long-term vision. They have this long-term vision. You know, there's no other—

584
00:36:51,522 --> 00:36:55,290
I think of this all the time— there's no other product

585
00:36:57,632 --> 00:37:01,400
that's the reverse of what consumerism is. If you

586
00:37:01,400 --> 00:37:05,093
ask Oddany Global, that group out of the Rhône who's

587
00:37:05,238 --> 00:37:09,027
working on, you know, helping wineries meet the demands of

588
00:37:09,332 --> 00:37:10,408
the modern consumer.

589
00:37:13,041 --> 00:37:16,028
But wine is to be a

590
00:37:16,156 --> 00:37:19,753
representation of its time and its place always,

591
00:37:20,010 --> 00:37:23,350
right? And so you don't look at the market and say,

592
00:37:23,864 --> 00:37:26,674
oh, they want sweeter, they want drier, they want this and this. You can, you

593
00:37:26,674 --> 00:37:30,367
can make some small adjustments, but your job is still to, and so the

594
00:37:30,367 --> 00:37:34,140
consumer has to react to the product rather than the product reacting to the

595
00:37:34,140 --> 00:37:37,978
consumer, in my opinion, of an honest wine. There's a

596
00:37:37,994 --> 00:37:41,784
whole segment of the market that doesn't do that. Unfortunately, they

597
00:37:41,784 --> 00:37:45,124
don't listen to the market. Good. Yeah, we do.

598
00:37:46,184 --> 00:37:49,797
We try to— I mean, being first of all on the market here on the

599
00:37:49,797 --> 00:37:53,602
field, on the ground, doing the masterclass or meeting some sommeliers all over

600
00:37:53,666 --> 00:37:57,167
the world help us also to understand the needs of each market. Sometimes from

601
00:37:57,215 --> 00:38:00,956
Asia to Europe or from Europe to US, can be

602
00:38:00,956 --> 00:38:04,467
very different. So we have to adapt ourselves, but then

603
00:38:04,900 --> 00:38:08,667
we don't have to forget where we're from. We don't have to forget

604
00:38:08,667 --> 00:38:12,354
what we want to create as well. So, you know, wine is also—

605
00:38:12,899 --> 00:38:16,714
it's a philosophy, but it's also all about creating emotion.

606
00:38:17,307 --> 00:38:20,818
And when you create emotion, it's also the feeling of the

607
00:38:20,914 --> 00:38:24,633
winemaker most of the time. So this is what we

608
00:38:24,842 --> 00:38:28,658
try to do in general. For our 3 estates. And for

609
00:38:28,658 --> 00:38:32,442
that, but I'm sure Guillaume must have told you this a few years ago,

610
00:38:32,474 --> 00:38:36,211
but in Château Aubryon, we have the fabulous family Delmas,

611
00:38:36,564 --> 00:38:39,803
actually represented by Jean-Philippe Delmas, which are

612
00:38:40,893 --> 00:38:44,469
among them since a very long time. They were here, I mean,

613
00:38:44,822 --> 00:38:48,398
the grandfather of Jean-Philippe was in Château Aubryon

614
00:38:48,510 --> 00:38:52,054
before Clarence Dillon came to purchase the

615
00:38:52,054 --> 00:38:55,823
estate in 1935. '75. So that's been a while. Yeah.

616
00:38:56,608 --> 00:38:59,206
Interesting. 100 years. Yeah. That's amazing.

617
00:39:01,098 --> 00:39:04,946
The emotion part is the most important. I think it's a critical term.

618
00:39:05,251 --> 00:39:09,051
Yeah. And you've done this a long time.

619
00:39:09,099 --> 00:39:12,306
I've done this a long time. And there are some wines that you just put

620
00:39:12,306 --> 00:39:16,139
to your nose and you go, oh my gosh, this is extraordinary emotional.

621
00:39:16,572 --> 00:39:20,244
And I think the novice wine drinker understands that, doesn't know how to

622
00:39:20,244 --> 00:39:23,952
express it. But we'll get that sensation and go, wait a minute,

623
00:39:24,353 --> 00:39:27,885
there's something very powerful here. So, but here's

624
00:39:28,271 --> 00:39:31,835
the challenge I see. You must like football or soccer.

625
00:39:32,140 --> 00:39:35,641
Sure. Right? Baseball's probably not part of your regular.

626
00:39:35,914 --> 00:39:39,462
Yeah, yeah. Totally. It

627
00:39:39,607 --> 00:39:42,850
doesn't matter whether it's football, American football,

628
00:39:42,979 --> 00:39:45,853
baseball, or lacrosse.

629
00:39:47,972 --> 00:39:51,679
If I go to the local stadium in Saint-Émilion and I

630
00:39:51,711 --> 00:39:54,856
watch a game, a match, and there's how many?

631
00:39:54,921 --> 00:39:58,692
50,000? I'm not sure. With all due respect, I'm not sure

632
00:39:58,692 --> 00:40:01,131
you're going to enjoy your time.

633
00:40:03,426 --> 00:40:05,769
And you know what?

634
00:40:06,187 --> 00:40:09,958
Southwest of France is more driven by the rugby. Okay,

635
00:40:10,022 --> 00:40:13,842
well, okay, let's call it rugby then. Yeah, the sporty bit of The sport really

636
00:40:13,955 --> 00:40:17,584
is, is kind of insignificant. The reason I bring it up is like, okay,

637
00:40:17,969 --> 00:40:21,726
Dodger Stadium here can hold, I think, 55,000

638
00:40:21,726 --> 00:40:24,986
people. Yeah. Well, those 55,000 people, all of them

639
00:40:25,676 --> 00:40:29,128
got in their car, drove, put up with the parking problem,

640
00:40:29,674 --> 00:40:33,512
walked to their seat and sit in the sun for 9 innings, 3 hours

641
00:40:34,186 --> 00:40:38,024
to watch a baseball game. And every one of them has a different perspective

642
00:40:38,024 --> 00:40:41,783
on that game. Some don't even care. Some go for the hot dogs. You're right.

643
00:40:42,201 --> 00:40:46,041
Some go and analyze every single play and every single

644
00:40:46,073 --> 00:40:49,528
player and every single pitch. So how— this is sort of a

645
00:40:49,528 --> 00:40:53,304
rhetorical question, but how do we get all the people in the

646
00:40:53,304 --> 00:40:57,000
stadium? Yeah, good question. Right. With a different

647
00:40:57,000 --> 00:41:00,760
opinion. I don't know how you do it. No, I think

648
00:41:00,760 --> 00:41:04,262
we don't have to be snob with the wine, of course.

649
00:41:04,632 --> 00:41:08,308
People know a lot, some sommeliers, some passionate people, but

650
00:41:09,753 --> 00:41:13,430
wine is also just a drink to share at the beginning

651
00:41:13,767 --> 00:41:17,460
and to give emotion, as we said, to give pleasure to

652
00:41:17,460 --> 00:41:20,414
people, to do wine and food pairing as well. So

653
00:41:22,132 --> 00:41:25,921
if people just enjoy the wine by itself, it's fine. Just take

654
00:41:25,921 --> 00:41:29,517
it down to that level. That's it. Open that bottle up and just let people

655
00:41:29,517 --> 00:41:33,094
enjoy it. Take a seat. I feel like a glass right now. As soon as

656
00:41:33,126 --> 00:41:35,643
we're done with this, you're going to open it. Yeah. But

657
00:41:37,519 --> 00:41:40,677
you said something important just then about the knowledgeable somms,

658
00:41:40,741 --> 00:41:42,424
etc.

659
00:41:44,572 --> 00:41:48,179
I went to lunch the other day with Lorenzo Pasquini. All right. Of

660
00:41:48,339 --> 00:41:51,898
Château d'Yquem. Yeah. And

661
00:41:52,524 --> 00:41:56,211
he was in town recently. Yeah, right. And there was a gentleman across the

662
00:41:56,211 --> 00:42:00,049
way. And I won't name any names and I won't

663
00:42:00,049 --> 00:42:03,743
bring his picture out, but I thought to myself, he's the

664
00:42:03,743 --> 00:42:06,698
exact reason why people are intimidated.

665
00:42:07,839 --> 00:42:11,565
A little older than me, but one of those guys that just

666
00:42:12,111 --> 00:42:15,629
will bore you to death. I think you have to adapt

667
00:42:15,629 --> 00:42:19,147
yourself to the people you are talking to. I mean, I

668
00:42:19,420 --> 00:42:23,018
used to work at the beginning of my career in hospitality, so I used to

669
00:42:23,018 --> 00:42:26,789
do the visit, the tours and everything. And from a group to another, you

670
00:42:26,789 --> 00:42:30,636
can have passionate people that know much more than you. And

671
00:42:30,669 --> 00:42:34,308
the next group, I mean, on the afternoon, could be just like tourists just coming

672
00:42:34,340 --> 00:42:37,626
to visit and enjoying the place with the children on the back. So

673
00:42:38,588 --> 00:42:42,387
you have to adapt yourself. And the more simple you are with people, the more

674
00:42:42,580 --> 00:42:45,513
easy it will be to them to understand your wine.

675
00:42:46,700 --> 00:42:50,467
So yeah, I think one is— So you have to live this sort

676
00:42:50,467 --> 00:42:54,155
of difference every time it happens. I mean, that you, you are in a room

677
00:42:54,460 --> 00:42:57,362
and you never know what level you're going to speak to.

678
00:42:58,292 --> 00:43:01,932
That's sometimes the more challenging during the masterclass. That's why I'd like

679
00:43:02,237 --> 00:43:05,893
to start by asking people where they're from. Oh,

680
00:43:06,005 --> 00:43:08,827
that's a good idea. What are the different knowledge of everyone so that

681
00:43:09,517 --> 00:43:13,141
I'm not going to be boring for them or I'm not going to give, I

682
00:43:13,141 --> 00:43:16,989
don't know, too many specific and technical explanation. Find

683
00:43:16,989 --> 00:43:20,557
out who you're talking to, right? Yeah, I'm going to just— I want them to

684
00:43:20,557 --> 00:43:24,388
have a good time to understand for sure. Let

685
00:43:24,388 --> 00:43:26,480
me get a couple of glasses. So

686
00:43:28,348 --> 00:43:32,131
this is— what's the cépage? What's the blend of this? Typical

687
00:43:32,131 --> 00:43:35,963
from the Right Bank. As I said, it's— Right Bank is mainly driven by clay

688
00:43:36,060 --> 00:43:39,293
and limestone. And this is what we have in Château Quintus. Quintus, in fact— oh,

689
00:43:39,875 --> 00:43:43,496
I'm going to try to explain it as best because

690
00:43:43,529 --> 00:43:45,893
some people are going to watch us, but some people are just going to hear

691
00:43:45,893 --> 00:43:49,720
me. That's true. Château Quintus

692
00:43:50,057 --> 00:43:53,783
is located on a promontory at the

693
00:43:53,863 --> 00:43:57,476
top southwest of Saint-Émilion. So it means

694
00:43:57,540 --> 00:44:00,672
that the château is located on the top of the hill and it creates a

695
00:44:00,672 --> 00:44:04,092
kind of pyramid where the two expositions

696
00:44:04,365 --> 00:44:07,336
belong to Château Quintus, which is a pretty good thing for us compared to the

697
00:44:07,336 --> 00:44:10,789
other estates. Both on the northern area and the

698
00:44:10,789 --> 00:44:14,483
southern area, which is very nice because nowadays with the global warming, You know

699
00:44:14,499 --> 00:44:18,226
that we are facing some crazy challenging vintages. 2022 has been

700
00:44:18,258 --> 00:44:21,921
so hot, 2024 much more rainy. So it permits the team of

701
00:44:21,937 --> 00:44:25,423
Château Quintus to adapt themselves and to pick sometimes a bit more of the

702
00:44:25,423 --> 00:44:29,198
northern part to get the freshness, the minerality, the tension on a very

703
00:44:29,246 --> 00:44:32,941
hot and warm vintage. And on the other hand, for the

704
00:44:32,941 --> 00:44:36,733
rainy vintage, picking sometimes a bit more of the southern part

705
00:44:36,733 --> 00:44:39,303
to get some alcohol degree, to get some, I

706
00:44:40,974 --> 00:44:44,795
could say, powerful and more full-bodied part in the

707
00:44:44,827 --> 00:44:47,781
blend. So Quintus blends, the Grand Vins,

708
00:44:48,439 --> 00:44:51,955
and especially the 2016 is 70% Merlot

709
00:44:52,468 --> 00:44:55,807
and 30% Cabernet Franc. It aged for 12 months in oak barrels

710
00:44:56,160 --> 00:44:59,821
with around 35 to 39% of new

711
00:44:59,997 --> 00:45:03,304
oak. And here it is, 10 years old. Wow. Well, let's see what you got.

712
00:45:03,609 --> 00:45:07,028
That sounds very enticing or

713
00:45:07,077 --> 00:45:10,221
delicious. I love that noise. Yeah.

714
00:45:12,288 --> 00:45:15,895
Wow. Quintus '16. This is '16? Yeah.

715
00:45:16,056 --> 00:45:19,598
Look at the color, how deep it is. Well,

716
00:45:19,887 --> 00:45:23,429
the complexity in the nose is

717
00:45:23,429 --> 00:45:27,277
amazing, but it's still showing a lot of youth from that.

718
00:45:27,758 --> 00:45:31,445
That's a wine which is perfectly drinkable now, but which— The

719
00:45:31,525 --> 00:45:34,939
color is beautiful. That you can keep in the cellar for a few more years.

720
00:45:35,115 --> 00:45:38,658
Yeah. The Grand Vin especially, I picked with me 2 bottles, but

721
00:45:38,658 --> 00:45:42,428
decided to open the Grand Vin. The Grand Vin Specialized wine, which is dedicated

722
00:45:42,428 --> 00:45:46,009
for gastronomy, in my opinion, that's a wine we need to pair with something.

723
00:45:47,069 --> 00:45:49,975
You know, the acid in the Cabernet Franc is perfect at the end. I'm fond

724
00:45:49,975 --> 00:45:52,737
of that. Yeah. With some beef. The acidity shows pretty well here.

725
00:45:53,507 --> 00:45:57,184
Sure. Thanks for bringing that up. Cheers. Thanks for hosting me. Pleasure to

726
00:45:57,184 --> 00:45:59,416
meet you. That's fascinating.

727
00:46:00,958 --> 00:46:04,522
Well, it satisfied my desire for a glass of wine, that's for sure.

728
00:46:07,073 --> 00:46:10,838
You know, it's funny, I have collectors and, you know, it's

729
00:46:10,918 --> 00:46:14,650
not too many Burgundy collectors, but mostly Bordeaux collectors. And that's why that

730
00:46:14,747 --> 00:46:18,351
you show that there's Costes-Estournel out there, there's Aussonne out

731
00:46:18,351 --> 00:46:22,036
there ready for pickup. And there's

732
00:46:22,036 --> 00:46:25,640
something about the Bordeaux side of the world that

733
00:46:25,656 --> 00:46:29,309
just creates this enthusiasm. And maybe it's the emotion,

734
00:46:29,501 --> 00:46:33,186
maybe that's what it is. Absolutely. I think so. I think we also need

735
00:46:33,186 --> 00:46:36,918
to tell the people that once they travel to France, they should come and say

736
00:46:36,934 --> 00:46:40,674
hi to us. Come and visit. They don't have to be

737
00:46:41,428 --> 00:46:45,186
shy or whatever. They can just knock at the door, book an

738
00:46:45,218 --> 00:46:49,055
appointment, and make a tour with us. I mean, that's the only way to really

739
00:46:49,135 --> 00:46:52,620
understand the product, the philosophy of the

740
00:46:52,684 --> 00:46:56,104
winemakers, but also the philosophy of the Domaine

741
00:46:56,136 --> 00:46:59,974
Clavenzillon in general. That's a good point, and we'll wrap up

742
00:46:59,974 --> 00:47:03,683
with this. We're already out of time after I ask you this question. But,

743
00:47:06,011 --> 00:47:09,431
you know, tourism, you know, wine tourism is on the rise.

744
00:47:09,784 --> 00:47:13,365
Yeah. And it goes back to that experiential idea that we were talking about

745
00:47:13,397 --> 00:47:17,090
where people need to have this experience. But all over the world, it's on the

746
00:47:17,090 --> 00:47:20,269
rise. There are groups in Armenia where MyHeritage is

747
00:47:20,783 --> 00:47:24,476
putting together wine tours. And it seems to me

748
00:47:24,476 --> 00:47:28,185
that that— like when I travel, of course, I'm in the industry,

749
00:47:28,249 --> 00:47:32,023
but my friends that travel with me expect to

750
00:47:32,023 --> 00:47:35,459
go visit a winery. Yeah. It's just, and they'll do whatever it takes.

751
00:47:36,262 --> 00:47:39,682
We were in Bari in, in the, in the Puglia and I

752
00:47:39,874 --> 00:47:42,684
rented a van. It was like an hour and 25 minute drive to get this

753
00:47:42,765 --> 00:47:46,538
little tiny winery with this little room and, and taste

754
00:47:46,538 --> 00:47:50,327
wine with the winemaker. And they were, they loved it. 3 hours worth of driving

755
00:47:50,327 --> 00:47:54,100
just to taste the expression of this area.

756
00:47:54,582 --> 00:47:58,244
And I think that's an important part of what's going to be happening here. Yeah,

757
00:47:58,260 --> 00:48:01,327
I think it's part of Bordeaux mood. I mean, there are so many things to

758
00:48:01,327 --> 00:48:04,748
do in Bordeaux, of course, and around. We are very close to the

759
00:48:04,764 --> 00:48:08,361
Atlantic Sea, the Atlantic Ocean, which is,

760
00:48:08,955 --> 00:48:12,649
by the way, beautiful. We've got the land area with the

761
00:48:12,649 --> 00:48:16,198
beautiful forest. You've got the Bassin d'Arcachon. But of course, you

762
00:48:16,246 --> 00:48:19,731
can't come and stop in Bordeaux without visiting an

763
00:48:19,731 --> 00:48:23,296
estate, without visiting a château. We are lucky

764
00:48:23,810 --> 00:48:27,471
to have some beautiful estates where the wines are such outstanding

765
00:48:28,530 --> 00:48:32,352
and beautiful. But we're also lucky because mostly Château

766
00:48:32,400 --> 00:48:36,109
Haut-Brion and La Mission Haut-Brion are located very close to the city

767
00:48:36,109 --> 00:48:39,786
center now. In the past, it used to be in the countryside. Now, as Bordeaux

768
00:48:39,786 --> 00:48:43,014
has grown and grown, now the estates are

769
00:48:43,014 --> 00:48:46,594
surrounded by the city. Okay, here we go.

770
00:48:47,487 --> 00:48:51,190
Now I'm going to remind you that nobody—

771
00:48:51,222 --> 00:48:53,938
going to be tricky for me. I'm going to give you 3 questions. I'm going

772
00:48:53,954 --> 00:48:54,989
to try my best. I'm going to give you 3 answers.

773
00:48:57,180 --> 00:49:00,500
And so far, basically,

774
00:49:01,747 --> 00:49:05,529
and I can only do this with French folks because all the

775
00:49:05,529 --> 00:49:09,006
wines are French. Do someone French. He's a French doctor. Yeah. But

776
00:49:09,071 --> 00:49:12,838
anyway, mathematically, you have a 33% chance of

777
00:49:12,854 --> 00:49:16,699
getting it right. 33%, all right. And that's basically what happens. Come

778
00:49:16,699 --> 00:49:20,470
on, you never know. I'm ready, let's go. Okay, so

779
00:49:21,578 --> 00:49:25,301
this is a list of human ailments. In this case, we're going to

780
00:49:25,365 --> 00:49:25,702
pick

781
00:49:30,100 --> 00:49:33,647
nervous depression. Nervous depression. Can you imagine that?

782
00:49:33,711 --> 00:49:36,584
Nervous depression with wine, and wine's going to fix it. So there's not only a

783
00:49:36,600 --> 00:49:40,082
wine that goes with it— I'll give you the 3 choices— there's a

784
00:49:40,852 --> 00:49:44,682
dosage, like a doctor would give you a prescription. Yeah, absolutely. Okay,

785
00:49:44,698 --> 00:49:48,223
so you could either have a Medoc red, a

786
00:49:48,223 --> 00:49:52,037
glass of champagne, or Côte de Beaune. Which

787
00:49:52,133 --> 00:49:55,883
one of those would help you with nervous depression and

788
00:49:55,979 --> 00:49:59,649
why? Really, the question is why? Nervous depression? I'll say champagne. Champagne is a party

789
00:49:59,681 --> 00:50:03,158
wine. Ah, there you go. See, that's a good reason.

790
00:50:03,430 --> 00:50:07,100
Yeah, I think so. But it's the wrong answer. Come on. It's the

791
00:50:07,100 --> 00:50:10,627
midriff? It's the midriff, yeah. Here's what it said.

792
00:50:11,846 --> 00:50:15,469
Because the glycerin it contains combines in the intestine with the

793
00:50:15,533 --> 00:50:19,301
phosphates of the fermented grape juice— you didn't know this, did you?— to form

794
00:50:19,317 --> 00:50:23,133
glycerol phosphates of natural lime, which have

795
00:50:23,229 --> 00:50:26,949
tonic virtues and which do not interfere with the functional integrity of the

796
00:50:26,949 --> 00:50:30,364
nervous system. Did you know this? I'm not sure it

797
00:50:30,364 --> 00:50:34,147
helps. I heard about that. And the dosage is 1 or

798
00:50:34,147 --> 00:50:37,354
2 glasses before and during meals So consider

799
00:50:37,995 --> 00:50:40,287
that a bottle a day, basically 2 glasses,

800
00:50:42,243 --> 00:50:45,994
3 meals. Well, not so bad. Good portion. Of

801
00:50:45,994 --> 00:50:49,714
course you're going to feel better. Of course. Yeah. You're

802
00:50:49,714 --> 00:50:53,288
not going to have nervous depression. I mean, Niels, it's such an honor to have

803
00:50:53,288 --> 00:50:55,917
you here. And so wish you luck on the rest of your trip and that

804
00:50:55,933 --> 00:50:59,027
we accomplish the things that we're trying to do here

805
00:50:59,637 --> 00:51:03,117
with alerting the public to wines like this. A gorgeous

806
00:51:04,193 --> 00:51:07,983
Quintus. Quintus. Quintus. Quintus. Yeah. Why do I say

807
00:51:07,983 --> 00:51:11,499
it that? Quintus. Quintus. There is another anecdote about

808
00:51:11,499 --> 00:51:15,193
Quintus. As we purchased 3 different estates to

809
00:51:15,193 --> 00:51:18,886
create Château Quintus, they used to have previous names. It was difficult to do a

810
00:51:18,886 --> 00:51:22,355
mix of these names, so we decided to rename the estate for

811
00:51:22,355 --> 00:51:25,856
Quintus. A long time ago, the Gallo-Romans that used to

812
00:51:25,888 --> 00:51:29,598
create the village of Saint-Émilion, they also used to name their 5th

813
00:51:29,650 --> 00:51:33,443
5th child, Quintus. And 4th in the group—

814
00:51:33,459 --> 00:51:36,400
Must be Latin for 4th. Yeah, 4th in the group, in the range of wine,

815
00:51:36,496 --> 00:51:40,122
we've got Château Aubryon red, Château Aubryon white, La

816
00:51:40,122 --> 00:51:43,937
Mission Aubryon red, white, and the 5th child, Quintus. So it

817
00:51:43,937 --> 00:51:47,267
gives a tribute, first of all, to this gallo-roman. So as a sommelier, if you

818
00:51:47,979 --> 00:51:51,815
want to show up the bottle and just explain to your consumers, you

819
00:51:51,831 --> 00:51:55,424
come, you explain the story, and then they know where they put their foot. You're

820
00:51:55,473 --> 00:51:59,036
in the village of Saint-Émilion, because of the Carole Roman story, but

821
00:51:59,292 --> 00:52:02,515
it's also directly linked to the two big producers from the Left Bank, Aubryon and

822
00:52:02,547 --> 00:52:05,785
La Mission Aubryon. Wow, that is a really fun story. And then the other bottle

823
00:52:05,785 --> 00:52:09,183
you brought was the second label. The other bottle I took with me is the

824
00:52:09,215 --> 00:52:11,908
Dragon of Quintus, which is the second label, actually.

825
00:52:12,918 --> 00:52:16,638
Such an outstanding wine, and in my opinion, probably one of the best value Fumonis

826
00:52:16,654 --> 00:52:20,373
you can find in Bordeaux. And it's younger vines,

827
00:52:21,062 --> 00:52:24,849
barrel select. How do you define it? It's a different brand altogether. Younger

828
00:52:24,849 --> 00:52:28,271
vines, not only. In fact, as I told you, as Quintus is

829
00:52:28,368 --> 00:52:32,062
located on the kind of promontory, we have a kind of Burgundy way to produce

830
00:52:32,062 --> 00:52:34,938
the wine. As you know, in Burgundy, in the valley, you got the Chablis villages,

831
00:52:35,291 --> 00:52:37,669
and then the more you go to the top, the more you got the beautiful

832
00:52:37,701 --> 00:52:41,219
wines. So it's quite the same for Quintus, not because we want to copy the

833
00:52:41,219 --> 00:52:45,010
Burgundy wines, absolutely not, but because of the topology

834
00:52:45,010 --> 00:52:48,047
of the soil. The more you go to the top of this hill, the more

835
00:52:48,047 --> 00:52:51,819
you have the mozzarrock limestone, where you can have some beautiful

836
00:52:52,556 --> 00:52:56,373
expression of the Cabernet Franc on it. So it means that on

837
00:52:56,405 --> 00:53:00,061
the lower area, we have a third wine, which is the Saint-Émilion

838
00:53:00,077 --> 00:53:03,829
Quintus. Anyway, that's an exclusivity of distribution. On the slopes,

839
00:53:03,941 --> 00:53:07,549
we produce the Dragon de Quintus, and on the top, you've got the Grand

840
00:53:08,687 --> 00:53:12,472
Vin. Okay, so it's a separate brand with a separate mission and a

841
00:53:12,472 --> 00:53:16,192
separate purpose. Yeah, absolutely. It's not only two

842
00:53:16,448 --> 00:53:20,024
different prices, it's also 2 different moments to taste them.

843
00:53:21,779 --> 00:53:25,016
I took with me the 2020, which is perfectly drinkable now.

844
00:53:25,338 --> 00:53:29,102
2020 Château Quintus is a bit young in my opinion. So it's

845
00:53:29,102 --> 00:53:32,221
also different ways to open the wine, different ways

846
00:53:32,494 --> 00:53:36,192
to enjoy them. Dragon is more like

847
00:53:36,257 --> 00:53:40,025
the easy one. You got people, friends coming last minute at home.

848
00:53:41,265 --> 00:53:44,743
Don't know what to open, just pop up the bottle and that's beautiful. And you

849
00:53:44,807 --> 00:53:48,438
look French and you got a château and you got a Bordeaux, it's cool. Again,

850
00:53:48,454 --> 00:53:50,972
pleasure to have you here. And I'm going to bring some in and I'm going

851
00:53:50,972 --> 00:53:54,772
to recommend this to my collector clients that would round out

852
00:53:54,772 --> 00:53:57,531
their collection and provide wines.

853
00:53:58,316 --> 00:54:02,005
They're very peculiar about what they

854
00:54:02,005 --> 00:54:05,629
pour their guests. And they could be proud to

855
00:54:05,693 --> 00:54:09,301
pour this. All right. Thank you for hosting me. It was a

856
00:54:09,301 --> 00:54:13,054
pleasure to meet you. Pleasure to share the passion of the wine, Bordeaux, but

857
00:54:13,054 --> 00:54:16,876
also talk bit about Château Quintus here. And once again, if

858
00:54:16,941 --> 00:54:20,751
people want to come and meet us at the château anytime they come and stop

859
00:54:20,816 --> 00:54:23,835
in France, that's an open invitation. Come on.

860
00:54:24,755 --> 00:54:25,466
Cheers. Cheers.