I wrote about the Château des Estanilles back in May of this year. It was just my second Vine Route article, and I was pleased to meet Michel Louison and to hear about his exploits with the Faugères schist—particularly his high-density plantation of Syrah on an impossibly steep hillside, the highest spot overlooking the village of Lenthéric. Le Clos du Fou (which sounds better in French; in English, it translates, roughly, as “That crazy man’s field”) pretty much defined Louison’s sometimes difficult relationship with his neighbors, who viewed him as being slightly eccentric.
Le Clos du Fou became the flagship cuvée for the Château des Estanilles, but all of Louison’s wines are outstanding. At the end of the interview he spoke about his having purchased a 10-ha property in the Limoux appellation in 2000. I wondered how he would manage both vineyards, and the answer became apparent just in the last few weeks with the publication of an article in the Midi Libre, a newspaper published in the Languedoc region, about the sale of the Château des Estanilles to a 35-year-old man named Julien Seydoux.
Seydoux, although lacking in any viticultural or winemaking experience, has an interesting background, and the enviable plus of a father with an even more interesting background. The fils Seydoux says in the article that he intends on making the same quality wine that the Château des Estanilles is known for (I hope so, as this domaine produces some of the best wine in the Faugères appellation). He adds that “the notion of marketing, along with strong sales actions” is necessary to improve the Château des Estanilles. I’m not certain what Louison has been doing to sell his wine these last 30 or so years, but he must have been doing something, as it sells pretty well in France, the UK, the USA, northern Europe and Japan.
It might just be youthful enthusiasm when he says that “young blood is necessary to valoriser (develop) this domaine. He is Louison’s junior by 30 years. It would be wonderful if that youthful energy were channeled positively by continuing the love affair that Louison obviously has with the rocky Faugères schist that imbues his wine with a sense of place.
Here we get onto shaky ground. Seydoux, when speaking about his family, says that they are “Protestant.” It seems a bit odd to define oneself this way in secular France (I might see this occurring more readily in the USA, where people wear their religion more on their sleeves, but not so much here). But then there’s the history of Faugères, just down the hill from the village of Lenthéric. In the 16th century, two-thirds of the Faugères population was, unlike most of the adjacent predominantly Catholic towns, Protestant. This created problems, as anyone who has studied “The Hundred Years’ War,” knows. Well, that war is now relegated to history books, so this declaration may be just to suggest that he’s hardworking or that Faugères and he have something in common.
What is even more interesting, at least to me, is when he says, with Bill-Gates-I-dropped-out-of-university-and-I’m-one-of-the-world’s-richest-men bravado, that “Quand j’ai raté le baccalauréat, j’ai dû me débrouiller seul.” This phrase says a lot. First of all, the baccalauréat (which is the test that gets one out of high school in France) is normally an essential ticket to success in this country. Not passing this test means you don’t get into the university (particularly a good university, which, as every French parent knows, is the key to success, unless you’re the son of the President). In affect, what he’s saying is “When I didn’t get my baccalauréat, I had to manage on my own.” He sold cars, worked in advertising, fabricated airplane parts, went to school at San Diego University (thanks, I imagine, to the GED high school equivalency degree that exists in the USA; no such second chance, to my knowledge, is readily available in France), before he went to work as a trader at the Paris Stock Exchange between 2004 and 2008.
He must have done better than the majority of traders during that time period (or maybe he got out before the market plunge of 2007), as the Château des Estanilles changed hands for a reputed €2.5 million (almost $3 million). Until I heard that figure, I had just about bought the Horatio Alger story. Then I read about the père Seydoux, who happens to have a full page on Wikipédia. The grandson of one of the Schlumberger brothers from Alsace who co-founded the oilfield research company that bears their name, the elder Seydoux started out as a film producer, but has since branched out to own a well-known Parisian restaurant and the football (for Americans, that’s soccer) club of Lille.
At any rate the Wikipédia page for the Schlumberger brothers set me straight about this Protestant thing; the Schlumberger family was among France’s most famous Protestant families, eschewing displays of wealth, and embracing the work ethic and frugality taught by Martin Luther.
I don’t want to read too much into this article in the Midi Libre. Hard work and modesty never did anyone any harm–just look at Michel Louison. He’s as modest a hard worker as I’ve ever encountered. That’s why I wish him the best of luck with his new vineyard in Limoux, and I look forward to seeing what sort of wine his hard work and modest ways can produce there. And I’m curious to see what Julien Seydoux will do in Lenthéric. His final quotation in that article is that he “loves the wine, the terroir and the man (Louison).” That’s a good start. I just hope that his faith in marketing doesn’t exceed his belief in terroir.
