franc mayne, bordeaux
Franc Mayne is well set-up for wine tourism, but new owner also plans to invest in vineyards.
(Image credit: Booking.com)

Château Franc Mayne has become the latest high profile Bordeaux winery to be sold, with French businessman Jean-Pierre Savare and his family buying control of the St-Emilion Grand Cru Classé estate.

Jean-Pierre Savare, a Paris-based businessman and chairman of Oberthur Finance, has acquired the seven-hectare Château Franc Mayne on the St-Emilion plateau. It had been owned by Griet Van Malderen and Hervé Laviale since 2005.

Close to Beau-Séjour Bécot or Grand Mayne, Franc Mayne’s soils are composed of limestone and clay-limestone slopes. It is 90 percent Merlot and 10 percent Cabernet Franc.

The estate had been on sale for several months, but a deal took extra time to sort out due to negotiations over whether other properties in Pomerol and Lussac should be included. Savare has bought Franc Mayne without those other properties.

He was already a minority shareholder in the estate, together with Martine Cazeneuve and the Cazeneuve family, from Château Paloumey in Haut-Médoc. Savare has asked Martine Cazeneuve to guide the direction of Franc Mayne.

He said that he was seduced by the estate’s location and highlighted opportunities for wine tourism. A bed and breakfast, the Relais de Franc Mayne, already operates on the property.

There are plans to invest in the vineyards.

‘This property is beautiful, and is in a good general condition, but it was a little asleep while waiting for its new owner,’ Cazeneuve told Decanter.com.

‘We’re going to restructure the vineyard. It will be a long-term project.’

See also: St-Emilion’s year of deals – A review of 2017 by Jane Anson

Franc Mayne 2016 reviewed

Yohan Castaing
Yohan Castaing
Decanter Magazine and DWWA Judge

Bordeaux native Yohan Castaing is a freelance journalist, based in France. He reviews wines from the Loire, Languedoc, Roussillon, Provence, southwest France and Champagne houses for The Wine Advocate. He founded Anthocyanes, a French wine guide, and Velvety Tannins, a guide to the wines of the Rhône Valley. He also writes for wine publications including Gault&Millau and Jancis Robinson. Castaing has held a variety of positions in the wine industry such as wine buyer and marketing director. He was a wine marketing consultant and the author of several books about wine marketing and wine tourism before, in 2011, he became a full-time freelance wine journalist focusing on the industry and wine reviews.