In September last year my old friend, Ervé Goudard, sold his wonderful Provencal estate. Ervé had been a part of Goedhuis & Co since 1983 when he first appeared in Lyall Street, struggling up to the fourth floor carrying 6 bottles of his rosé and we have worked with him ever since.
Over the years his beautifully made rosé become our best-selling wine, selling over 3,000 cases per year. So we were concerned about the future when Ervé let us know about the sale.
A number of telephone calls with Marie Delon, one of the new owners, and our first tasting of the 2014 put our mind at rest. The 2014 is absolutely stunning and an amazing success particularly considering they only had three weeks to prepare for the vintage.
Last week Laura and I went down to Ch St Baillon to meet the new owners. They are not only charming but have great plans for the future which are already well underway. They have worked tirelessly on the vineyards, including planting a further 3 hectares of vineyards, and are rebuilding and re-equipping the cellar. So the future for Ch St Baillon looks incredibly bright and Ervé must be delighted that they will keep up his amazing work.
Finally one of Ervé’s less known achievements was to make terrific red wines. We left Ch St Baillon loaded down with a case of the Roudai 2008, which was absolutely delicious and a tribute to his wine making.