French actress Carole Bouquet says the 2004 vintage will be her last in Bordeaux.
The Gallic star, who part-owns the boutique Chateau La Croix de Peyrolie in Lussac Saint-Emilion, made her declaration at a tasting on her Sicilian estate.
Bouquet owns La Croix de Peyrolie in a fifty-fifty partnership with Bordeaux entrepreneur Bernard Magrez. The chateau’s Merlot vineyard only covers 1.3ha and makes around 500 cases at 13 hectolitres per hectare. Magrez’s oenological team makes the wine.
The French actress, whose film credits include ‘That Obscure Object of Desire’, the James Bond film ‘For Your Eyes Only’ and a cameo appearance in ‘Sex and the City’, says she wants to concentrate on her 10ha Sicilian estate on the volcanic island of Pantelleria.
The island itself is situated halfway between Sicily and the Tunisian coast and is famed for its sweet wines. Bouquet’s Sangue d’Oro, a sweet Passito, is one such example.
‘I’ve decided I want to stay there because I have no family house or inheritance,’ she said.
However, some may well lament Bouquet’s departure from Bordeaux.
‘Carole Bouquet has produced the finest wine I have ever tasted from this St-Emilion satellite appellation,’ said American wine critic Robert Parker in 2004. ‘It is a sleeper of the [2003] vintage.’
Written by Oliver Styles
