The Moueix family has bought a 31% stake in the company behind top St-Emilion chateau Belair.
Etablissements J P Moueix, whose properties include the stellar Château Petrus in Pomerol, bought the shares with the agreement of Belair owner Pascal Delbeck.
Delbeck, who inherited the estate and its land from Madame Dubois-Challon in 2003, said he was under pressure to ensure his properties were not lost for tax reasons.
'The bulimia of the French tax system forced me to think of all the ways I could avoid putting the future of my properties in danger,' Delbeck told decanter.com. 'I found a solution in the association with the Moueix's.'
Edouard Moueix, who runs Château Magdelaine, said his family had always been close to previous Belair owner, Mme Dubois-Challon, and that they had known Delbeck for 25 years.
'We wanted to avoid the château being sold to a large corporation,' said Moueix.
The Moueix family bought the minority stake in the Dubois-Challon company, formed by Delbeck and the previous owner before her death.
Moueix underlined the fact that his family's company, other than securing existing exclusive distribution rights for Belair, was only providing technical assistance.
'We are coming in as a reinforcement,' said Moueix. 'Our team will help them to take better care of the harvest – the [Belair] land is hard to work on.'
Delbeck insists he retains full control of the château.
'I remain owner of all the domains I inherited and I hope to perpetuate the work of Mme Dubois-Challon,' he said.
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I am delighted to hear that this great Château will not fall to the corporate giants and that M. Delbeck has protected it in this way by local alliance. One of the great joys of the Jurisdiction of Saint-Emilion is the family atmosphere and the great personal kindness of so many of the vignerons to visitors which makes for such a wonderful welcome for wine lovers.
Most importantly wine is not just a business to the individual growers, many of whom both have and feel deep family roots in their soil. I am absolutely sure that makes for enormous individuality reflected in the wine as well as in the people who make it in a way which many large commercial organisations will never be able to duplicate. Clive Coates MW, writing in February's edition of Decanter, says of the Medoc crus classés ”...hardly more than a handful are today family owned. And the wines taste increasingly alike. Is this mere coincidence?”
Corporate purchases are becoming far more common in the Jurisdiction and some individual growers have already been forced out by a combination of tax and Napoleonic Code inheritance laws. M. Francois des Ligneris was just such a grower. We shall undoubtedly miss his superb hospitality at Ch. Soutard (although he will still preside at L'Envers du Decor) and the wine world will be all the poorer if there are too many similar losses of character and individuality in the ranks of the Saint-Emilion growers and wine there becomes no more than another opportunity for investment.
Tim Hartley, Northern Chancellor of the Jurade de Saint-Emilion
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I am delighted to hear that this great Château will not fall to the corporate giants and that M. Delbeck has protected it in this way by local alliance. One of the great joys of the Jurisdiction of Saint-Emilion is the family atmosphere and the great personal kindness of so many of the vignerons to visitors which makes for such a wonderful welcome for wine lovers.
