France's New Faces

Young leaders take on the problems of Old World winemaking

Per-Henrik Mansson
Posted: September 30, 2003

Pierre Perrin's penchant for biking comes in handy as he scouts for obscure vineyard sites. 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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Pierre Perrin
A treasure hunter in the Southern Rhône

At age 15, Pierre Perrin preferred working in the vineyards to sitting at a school desk.

"I was not a good student," admits Perrin, now 31, whose family owns Château de Beaucastel in Châteauneuf-du-Pape. "I liked getting up at 4 a.m. and getting on a tractor," he recalls. "I felt good when I was in the vines."

Today, Pierre is the leader of a new generation of Perrins, designated to execute the family's ambitious vision for the Southern Rhône Valley. One of the Perrins' aims is to convince the world that the Southern Rhône is a complex mosaic of distinctive terroirs, not just one vast vineyard producing uniform Côtes du Rhône reds.

The vehicle for this crusade is Perrin & Fils, a négociant brand created in 1997 by François Perrin and his brother Jean-Pierre, Pierre's father, and since 1999 run by Pierre.

Perrin & Fils plays to the Perrins' strengths as experienced entrepreneurs and growers. Besides Beaucastel, whose 23,000 cases a year of quality reds and whites have helped attract global attention to the Châteauneuf-du-Pape appellation, the Perrins are behind La Vieille Ferme, a négociant brand that annually produces 176,000 cases of Côtes du Ventoux red and 44,000 cases of Côtes du Lubéron white.

The motive behind Perrin & Fils is to convince wine drinkers to explore and appreciate the distinctive but obscure vineyard regions of the Southern Rhone. How many wine lovers have heard of Rasteau, Vinsobres and Cairanne? These villages are among the 16 communes permitted to include their names in the Côtes du Rhône-Villages appellation, and thus rank just below the crus, such as Châteauneuf-du-Pape and Gigondas. They also hide some terrific terroirs, says Perrin, who now produces single-vineyard bottlings from these communes for Perrin & Fils, buying grapes or wine from growers there. In addition, the Perrins have purchased nearly 100 acres of vineyards in Vinsobres.

While some growers in these communes make beautiful wines, Perrin & Fils aspires to establish its reputation specializing in vineyard-designated communal wines from the Southern Rhône. And as the company's head vineyard scout, Perrin must unearth diamonds in the rough. "I am a discoverer of crus," he says. "It's our job to show the complexity and specificity of the terroirs in the Southern Rhône."

In the 2001 vintage, Perrin & Fils' lineup includes 1,700 cases of Rasteau from the vineyard named L'Andéol; 2,100 cases of Cairanne Peyre Blanche; and 2,500 cases from Vinsobres Les Cornuds. The brand also has vineyard-designated wines in Châteauneuf, Gigondas and Vacqueyras; a generic red and white Côtes du Rhône Perrin Réserve produce 67,000 cases a year.

Perrin & Fils' single-vineyard communal wines still are marked by rustic tannins, and much work remains to tame this new frontier. But Perrin is well-suited for the challenge. His grades soared once he left regular school to earn degrees at agriculture and enology schools in Avignon and Dijon. In 1996, he returned to Beaucastel. His brothers, Marc, 33, and Thomas, 29, have joined the family company since 2000. Perrin also has a sister and three younger cousins, who do not work in the business, at least not yet.

Perrin throws his all into the battle, even spying good vineyard sites when he rides his mountain bike in various appellations, although he's curtailed that hobby since he and his wife, Céline, are also busy raising two young daughters -- 3-year-old Chloé and 1-year-old Julie. He stopped smoking recently and complains about weight gain, but his warm brown eyes and easy smile echo his father's friendly demeanor.

Perrin has the spirit of a pioneer and his detective work could change the course of a region. On a recent Sunday morning, he drank coffee with veteran growers who might know the historic vineyard sites in their commune. "I listen to what the old-timers have to say," he says. "I discover terroirs and look at different geology. The philosophy is to be a bit Burgundian."

Claire Villars
Taking the Bordeaux bull by its horns

As she turns a corner, Claire Villars is shocked to see cattle rampaging through the grounds of her winery in Bordeaux. She jumps out of the car, approaches a large animal, and calls her neighbor on a cell phone.

"One of your cows has escaped," she tells the farmer. Sporting a bright orange dress, Villars approaches the menacing beast like a toreador, waving a large red leather handbag in front of its head.

"Don't get close," he warns her on the phone. "It's a bull."

Villars beats a quick retreat to the new winery she's built at Château Haut-Bages-Libéral, a Bordeaux fifth-growth in Pauillac. "I have two nice neighbors," deadpans Villars, 36. "Over here you have the farmer, and over there, adjacent to my vines, you have Château Latour."

Villars is cut from a different cloth than the region's elderly establishment. She draws admiring looks as she drives around Bordeaux in her convertible sports car, flaunting a healthy tan and a perfectly unmanageable mane of curly hair. A free spirit, she has put her youthful energy to good use at four of the six châteaus owned in the Médoc by her family's Groupe Taillan, which is headed by her grandfather, Jacques Merlaut, 92.

In 1992, Villars was in Paris studying for a doctorate in physics and chemistry when her parents, Bernardette and Philippe Villars, died while hiking in the Pyrenees. She returned home to give winemaking a try. "Sure enough, she got hooked," says an uncle, Jean Merlaut, who runs Château Gruaud-Larose, a second-growth in St.-Julien.

Villars has inherited the feisty character of her mother, who was a trailblazer in a male-dominated world, and she wanted nothing to do with her grandfather's offer to become the family group's spokeswoman. Instead, she was put in charge of several châteaus, including Château Chasse-Spleen in Moulis, which her mother had turned into a top cru bourgeois that rivaled many classified-growths.

In 1999, when the family decided to divvy up the estates and négoce businesses among the patriarch's three sons and two granddaughters, Villars surprised the family by leaving Chasse-Spleen to her sister, Céline. "It was running like a Rolls. I was afraid I'd get bored." She wanted a chance to turn around three underachieving estates -- châteaus Ferrière, La Gurgue and Haut-Bages-Libéral -- "even if it would take 30 years to do so," she says.

She reached her decision during a 500-mile trek in southern Europe with a backpack and her husband, Gonzague Lurton, 37, who owns Château Durfort-Vivens, a second-growth in Margaux. The couple has a 1-year-old son, Philippe.

Hiking isn't the only passion Villars inherited from her mother, and which she continues to enjoy despite the tragic circumstances surrounding her parents' deaths. "My mother loved the earth, and I am also attracted to great terroirs," says Villars. Taking on the three estates was a "super-challenge" that she likened to her mother's achievement at Chasse-Spleen. "My mother would have done the same; she liked to earn the crown, not get it handed to her on a silver platter," says Villars.

With family backing, Villars attacked. Château Ferrière, a 20-acre third-growth in Margaux purchased by the family in 1988, needed a major uplift; Villars poured about $1.36 million into the château itself and other buildings. She also upgraded its chai, which is also used to make the wines of the neighboring, 27-acre Château La Gurgue, a cru bourgeois bought by her family in 1978. Ferrière makes 3,000 cases a year and La Gurgue, 4,500 cases.

The biggest investment, about $2.25 million, was for Haut-Bages-Libéral, bought by the family in 1982, where she built a new winery, various other installations, and made improvements in the 71-acre vineyard. It produces 10,000 cases of grand vin, and two second wines totaling 3,000 cases.

"People have this idea that Bordeaux lives in the past, yet there are plenty of young winemakers who call everything into question," says Villars. In the classic 2000 vintage, Villars produced outstanding wines at Ferrière (93 points) and Haut-Bages-Libéral (92). As her hard work bears fruit, however, she is impatient to test how far she can take these "underachieving" classified-growths.

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