France's New Faces

Young leaders take on the problems of Old World winemaking

Per-Henrik Mansson
Posted: September 30, 2003

A self-described perfectionist, Laurence Faller turns out 20 to 30 different wines each year. Winemaker Profiles: Jean-Charles Boisset Pierre-Yves Colin Jean-Louis Chave Isabelle Coustal Stéphane Derenoncourt Philippe Guigal Laurence Faller Jean-Guillaume Prats Pierre Perrin Claire Villars

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Laurence Faller
Searching for balance in Alsace

Balance is Laurence Faller's favorite word. She balances ripe fruit and crisp acidity in the Rieslings, Gewürztraminers, Tokay Pinot Gris and other whites that she crafts at the family's Domaine Weinbach in Alsace. Her main hobbies, cooking gourmet meals in her well-equipped kitchen and discovering exotic islands aboard a sailboat, satisfy the need to stay close to home and a love for far-flung places.

Like many professional women, however, the French winemaker struggles to find the right balance between a successful career and a harmonious family life. At 36, Faller is single and longs to create a family, yet motherhood isn't in the cards right now because busy careers in different cities keep her and her German boyfriend of five years in a long-distance relationship. "I've got a demanding job," she says. "The wines are like kids; you've got to live with them and can't just check in once a week."

Her career may offer lessons to younger women who enter a world that Faller says can be biased against her gender. "Women must often do better than men to earn recognition," says Faller, poised and professional. "I couldn't think of being anything other than an independent and professional woman. Being femme au foyer, a homemaker is very nice and respectable, but it's not for me," she adds, braving the cool, humid underground cellars in a white tank-top and designer high-heel shoes.

In France, it's the tradition for the sons to become winemakers and take over family wineries while the daughters marry and leave the family estate with their husbands. Often, women who inherit vineyards incorporate them into their husband's estate, if he is a grower.

In Faller's case, there were no male heirs to take over Domaine Weinbach after her father, Théo, died in 1979 when Laurence was 12. Théo had inherited the estate from his father and uncle (who had acquired it in 1898); the domaine then passed to Théo's widow, Colette, and their daughters, Cathérine and Laurence.

Faller studied chemical engineering and enology, and earned an MBA in Lyon. She felt no particular destiny for winemaking but realized it was more fun than working in a chemical company. She interned at Sonoma-Cutrer in California and returned to the family winery in 1992, becoming its winemaker at age 25.

A self-described perfectionist, she makes some of Alsace's finest wines, which vary in style from bone-dry to late-harvest. "Our wines were good before, but Laurence has made them more focused," says Cathérine, who receives visitors and handles paperwork with her mother's help.

The winery, which was created by monks of the Capuchin order, is located in a restored 17th century monastery and is surrounded by walls, or clos, known as the Clos des Capucins. The name graces the labels of all 20 to 30 wines made yearly by Faller. The winery produces a little more than 11,000 cases a year.

Faller has put her stamp on the domaine. The estate's 67 acres are farmed either organically or, in one-third of the vineyards, in the more extreme, biodynamic method. In 1996, she purchased a third press, in order to press whole berries more slowly and from smaller parcels than was possible with just two presses. Faller believes the move brought even more finesse to the wines. In 1998, she created the micro-cuvée Riesling Schlossberg Cuvée Ste.- Cathérine L'Inédit!, which was selected from 60-year-old vines that produce a very ripe late-harvest white.

In achieving so much so young, Faller is a role model for any winemaker. But her search for personal and professional balance in a man's world makes her life as compelling to young female winemakers as her beautiful wines.

Jean-Guillaume Prats
A competitive spirit in St.-Estéphe

Jean-Guillaume Prats, 33, is a former French national champion winner of real tennis, a sport that's both aristocratic and athletic, both old and young. It's the perfect embodiment of his position as a dynamic young professional at the helm of a historic estate, Château Cos d'Estournel.

Prats, who is CEO of the second-growth in St. Estèphe, belongs to a new breed of young château managers in Bordeaux. They are responsible for the vineyards and the wine, yet report to wealthy owners who expect a high degree of financial expertise from their men in the field.

"In Bordeaux, there is an urgent need for managers who can understand the world of business and finance, have a real passion for wine, and know the vines and the cellars," says Prats.

He might have cut his ties after his family sold Cos, in late 1998, for an estimated $115 million. Instead, he became intimately involved in its turbulent transition. Shortly after the sale, the new Franco-Argentinean partners who purchased Cos tried to take the estate public. At age 28, Prats was flying the Concorde to New York for talks with investment bankers while also supervising the day-to-day workings at the château in the Médoc.

But the partners didn't get along, and Michel Reybier, a French businessman based in Geneva, bought Cos in 2000 and kept Prats on as CEO. Prats' father, Bruno, who had managed the estate for his family since 1971, had planted and maintained a top-notch vineyard, and the wines had done well. But the son knew there was room for improvement. Futures prices for Cos had lagged behind those of certain "super-second" châteaus, and this irked the competitive Prats, who presented a strategic plan to his new boss.

"I told Michel Reybier he had two options. Either we make a lot of wine, and prices and the prestige will go down; or we take risks and increase quality and the prestige of the brand. I love competition," says Prats, who is lean, fit and confident. "Either you are just content to be in an Olympic final, or you are in it to win."

At 13, Prats discovered real tennis, and the sport gave him a taste for winning. He won the French national championships four times between 1994 and 1998; he became the youngest player in France to be selected for the national team, and played in international tournaments in the United States and elsewhere. The Bordelais star fit into the exclusive world of real tennis, with its arcane rules and gentlemanly conduct, a favorite with European aristocrats. "It's a bit complicated, a bit austere," the intellectual Prats says appreciatively.

Prats prepared for his current job by graduating from the European Business School after studying in London, Paris and Madrid, and doing stints at wineries in Chile and Spain. In 1994, he returned to Cos and worked with Bruno. Four years later, the young executive was in charge.

Increased sophistication in the vineyards (60 percent Cabernet, 37 percent Merlot, with Cabernet Franc and Petit Verdot), and in the cellar has improved the purity of the wines, says Prats. For instance, the estate stopped spraying herbicides and switched to plowing, which deepens the root system and, subsequently, the flavors of the wines. He divided the vineyard into many parcels, which are now harvested individually as they come to maturity and vinified in fermentation vats that are smaller than in the past and equipped to control temperatures.

Now, Cos prunes for a smaller crop and makes about 22,000 cases a year, plus about 10,000 cases of a second wine, Les Pagodes de Cos, from the 172-acre vineyard. The 2002 Cos d'Estournel (95-100) reflects the hard work that the team at Cos puts into making exceptional wines.

The goal is to come the closest possible to first-growth quality. "I love winning," says Prats, who knows from experience how a close race can bring out the best in competitors, whether in Bordeaux vineyards or in real tennis confrontations.

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