Business as usual at Pitt and Jolie's Provence wine estate

The winemaking partner of Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie at their Provence château has said he doesn’t expect the estate to be sold any time soon.

There was speculation in Provence wine circles earlier this summer that Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie’s Château Miraval was for sale.

The estate’s future appeared more uncertain following the news last week that Jolie has filed for divorce from Pitt after two years of marriage and 12 years together.

But, the Hollywood couple’s winemaking partner has told Decanter.com that he doesn’t expect to see the estate on the market in the near future.

‘Miraval is not for sale,’ said Marc Perrin, part of the Perrin family of Château Beaucastel and who has partnered Pitt and Jolie.

‘The 2016 vintage [of Miraval rosé] will be released as planned and it looks great already,’ he told Decanter.com.

Brad Pitt’s lawyers could not be immediately reached for comment.

Château Miraval, in the northern reaches of Provence, is a fully organic property in its own 700 hectare valley that produces around 500,000 bottles of wine per year – a number that has more than doubled since the first the vintage in 2012.

It has been a strong commercial success, due to not only the celebrity draw of the Jolie-Pitt names but also their partnership with the Perrin family of Château Beaucastel in the Rhône Valley.

Since 2012, the Burgundy-based microbiologists Claude and Lydia Bourguignon – who also worked with the Perrins at Beaucastel – have been sampling soils across the entire valley to find the most suitable planting spots.

Marc Perrin previously told Decanter.com that Pitt has been closely involved in the wine since the beginning, attending blending sessions and taking an active role in planting and production decisions.

Pitt and Jolie bought the estate in 2008, but Miraval has musical roots.

In the 1970s, Miraval was home to the jazz pianist and composer Jacques Loussier, who built a recording studio on its grounds. Since then, Pink Floyd, Sting, Sade and the Cranberries have all recorded music there, and the Jolie-Pitts have recently restored the recording studio, ensuring that they and any visiting friends could do production and post-production for film work.

It has also been their main family home when in Europe, and was the site of their marriage in August 2014.