The owners of award-winning retailer Bottle Apostle have bought a Bordeaux château. See the details below...
Andrew Eakin and Naomi Murtagh, owners of independent wine merchant Bottle Apostle in London, have bought Château Puynard in Blaye Côtes de Bordeaux.
The 17 hectare Château Puynard is planted to 75% Merlot with the rest made up of Cabernet Sauvignon and a touch of Cabernet Franc, along hillsides that overlook the Gironde River.
It was previously owned by Cyrille and Nicolas Grégoire, whose family sold Chateau de la Rivière in Fronsac in December 2013 and who last year became owners of Château Ripeau, a Grand Cru Classé in St-Emilion.
This is the first vineyard purchase for the couple, who plan to sell the wine through their own shops as well as other distributors. Cyrille Grégoire will be staying on in an unofficial capacity to help with the handover.
‘We lived in Paris for three years before setting up the shops in London, and have regularly gone on wine sourcing trips around France over the past few years,’ Eakin told Decanter.com.
‘So we have had a long-standing connection with the country. Bordeaux is a city that we love, and it’s easy to travel to and from London for our other businesses. We are realistic. We know making wine is a lot of hard work, and we are not expecting to get rich from it. This is about making a wine that we’re proud of.’
Bottle Apostle now has five locations across London, and was named Decanter’s Large Independent Wine Retailer of the Year 2015.
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