A little over a year ago, I interviewed Laurent Fortin at Château Dauzac. He told me he had just finalised the acquisition of Domaine de la Bégude in Bandol and suggested we set a date. A year later, the promise has been kept and here we are with a sweeping view over the bay of La Ciotat, in the heart of this 300-hectare estate unlike any other. All that’s left is for me to wish you a good read and some lovely tastings.
Arriving at Domaine de la Bégude
Antoine
Thank you so much for welcoming us here. We’re at Domaine de la Bégude with a magnificent view over the bay of La Ciotat just behind us and La Brûlade right above us. We’ll come back to those names, which evoke so much here. First of all, we’ve already recorded an episode together. But for anyone who hasn’t listened to that first episode with Laurent, could you introduce yourself?
Laurent Fortin
With great pleasure. And by the way, if you haven’t listened, that’s a serious mistake because it was a really lovely podcast. Laurent Fortin, I manage the entire wine portfolio of the Family Office of Christian Roulleau, the founder of the Samsic group. It is made up today of Château Dauzac, where we met almost a year ago, Domaine de la Bégude, whose acquisition was completed last September, and two négociant houses based in Bordeaux, Maison Montagnac and Delta Négoce.
Antoine
Wonderful! So we already went into your background in some detail, so how did you come to wine? We won’t go back over that, and if it interests you, and I have no doubt it does, go back and listen to the first episode we recorded with Laurent. How did things start here? When was the first time you came here?
Laurent Fortin
Love at first sight. There you go, I’ll keep the summary very simple. Love at first sight. You arrive at a property unlike any other. A property that is a former monastery founded in the 7th century. I believe you shot a few videos that will be shown during the episode. A 300-hectare property with a plant heritage made up mainly of mourvèdre. Here we make 50% red, 40% rosé, 10% white. We are the northernmost property in the Bandol appellation, the appellation you can see behind me, and also the highest in altitude at more than 410 metres. So that sums up my first visit and my first discovery of the bay. It was genuine love at first sight. Christian Roulleau had asked me to find a property in Provence. Provence is vast. I visited a number of them and I have to say that when we arrived here, we fell in love. We are the fifth family to own it since its founding in the 7th century.
So there is a real history here, a heritage history, and we’re going to try to do what we did at Dauzac. To truly bring out the quintessence of the terroirs, because here there are many terroirs, to bring out the quintessence of each terroir in each vintage.
Antoine
The first time you came, was it with Christian Roulleau, or did you come once before?
Laurent Fortin
No, I came several times before to visit, because a property of more than 300 hectares takes several visits to see. You even get lost when you visit it. There are a few stories about that, but I won’t make myself look bad. It’s true that I once got lost on the property. It really was love at first sight for Christian Roulleau too when he came here and saw the potential. I’ll draw a parallel between La Bégude and Château Dauzac: La Bégude really is the sleeping beauty I found at Dauzac ten years ago. So it’s true that it’s going to be a big undertaking. It’s going to take more than ten years of work to make La Bégude what it should be. But it’s so challenging, so interesting, that the years will fly by as they did at Dauzac, very fast, and we hope to do just as well, if not better.
The history of Domaine de la Bégude
Antoine
So we’ll come back to the next ten years of La Bégude in a moment. But first, can we say a few words about the history of La Bégude? You started to talk about it: the fifth family to own it, and traces of wine here, it seems, since the 7th century.
Laurent Fortin
The 7th century. A monastery founded by a monastic order of which we’ve lost track, but which was absorbed by the monks of the abbey of Saint-Victor. And here we’re talking 1170 or 1180, the abbey of Saint-Victor, from 1170 and 1181 until 1789. In 1789, the confiscation of clergy assets during the Revolution. The abbey was bought by the owner of the La Ciotat shipyards, just below, who kept it roughly until the 1920s. Another family had it for a while. The Racine family, the Tari family, who are our neighbours at Giscours, and then us.
The heritage of Domaine de la Bégude
Antoine
We were talking earlier about the monks who lived here, who had their abbey, their kitchen, their oven: all that heritage. Today, it’s heritage that you’re restoring. You’re also bringing these old stones and old stories back to life.
Laurent Fortin
Very clearly, we’re going to start with the fundamentals. The 7th-century chapel, which saw the birth of the abbey, will be restored and consecrated so we can hold weddings there. Here we are open to wine tourism, so we can celebrate weddings, welcome people, and the whole property will be rehabilitated. So, like any good winemaker, any good peasant, I’d say in the noble sense of the word, we start with the plant heritage. We’re going to plant up to about fifteen additional hectares at most. We’ll go up to 50 hectares, against around forty today. So the plant heritage first, then the winemaking tools. We’re going to build a slightly larger cellar because, of course, it has to be sized in relation to the hectares planted. So a cellar that will start coming out of the ground after the 2024 harvest. And once that’s finished, we’ll tackle the two bastides that you’ve filmed or are going to film. A medieval bastide and an 18th-century bastide.
But above all we are on a wine estate in Provence. There are plenty of beautiful estates that showcase art, gastronomy, the spa, wellness. For us, what’s at the centre of everything at La Bégude is the wine. Making the best possible wine on our terroir in every vintage. So, to make the best possible wine on our terroir in every vintage, we need a plant heritage that is suited to our terroirs, to our different terroirs, suited to the climate and suited to our strategy of continuing to make great reds. Because Bandol means great reds. Cassis means great whites. As you know, Bandol means great reds, great rosés, rosés made from mourvèdre that have an intense colour and are gastronomic rosés. We’re not making poolside rosé. In fact, I have an example of one in my glass here, the Thyrsus cuvée, which is a natural wine.
Thyrsus is the staff of Bacchus. There you go, you noted that down earlier.
Antoine
If you want the reference for all that, you’ll have to watch the tasting video.
Laurent Fortin
A little joke between us. So in a way, we really want to make the best possible wines and we give ourselves the means to make the best possible wines.
Antoine
Within this heritage. So first of all the plant heritage.
Laurent Fortin
It’s what takes the longest to grow, right? Let me remind you that to make a red, well, you have to keep in mind that you can harvest a red wine made from mourvèdre at the ninth leaf, meaning nine years. That’s the minimum age. And then after 18 months of ageing. So of course you have to start with the plant heritage.
Antoine
Plant heritage, built heritage, then, whether technical or historical, the winemaking cellar, but also all the other elements surrounding the chapel of course. And there’s also heritage in the sense of fauna and flora, which is something especially dear to you here. You’ve become a hunting reserve.
Laurent Fortin
Very clearly, biodiversity has been one of our causes for many years. It’s the case at Dauzac. It’s of course the case at La Bégude. With a property like this, more than 300 hectares, we have a duty to preserve both the biotope, so the garrigue. Everything we see around us that really makes the charm of La Bégude, and of course all the biodiversity. We undertook a study to understand all the biodiversity and it is absolutely fabulous. At La Bégude, we have Bonelli’s eagles. There are six pairs in France, and we have three pairs at La Bégude. We’ve reintroduced red partridges. Since we are no longer a hunted territory, little by little foxes are coming back too. We did fence off the property to stop the wild boar and roe deer from coming to taste the grapes before we do. But alongside that, I’ll give you an example. We caught on the trail cameras across the property a pack of wolves.
The wolf has reclaimed the Sainte-Baume, the Sainte-Baume natural park. So it’s clear that our philosophy of championing biodiversity, biodiversity, biodynamics, knowing that La Bégude has been certified biodynamic since this year, since the 2023 vintage, and has been organic for many years already. But the biodynamic certification in 2023, so all of that fits into a logic of preserving the terroir and the territory.
Antoine
There’s always a little symbol that goes with La Bégude: the naiad. What is it? And why?
Laurent Fortin
Why the naiad? The naiad, in Provençal, is the place where you drink. Wine, certainly, today, but not always. We are equidistant between Toulon and Marseille. When travellers went from Toulon to Marseille, they didn’t follow the coastline, which is already very rugged and longer. They went through the massif and, as it happens, they would stop at the monastery to eat, to rest and to drink, to drink water. On the property, we have six boreholes, six wells where people could drink, quench their thirst and set off again towards Marseille or back towards Toulon. So this naiad is very much the symbol of the water-bearer. She gives travellers something to drink.
The process of selling a wine estate
Antoine
So there’s a mystery solved. There’s one thing I wanted to come back to: the process of acquiring an estate like La Bégude. I hope that in my life I’ll also have the chance to experience this kind of process and to contribute to buying vines. How does it work? What do you have to look at? What are the criteria? Is there a fairly defined process? What are the secrets, or the recipe, for acquiring an estate?
Laurent Fortin
I don’t think there’s a recipe. Every acquisition depends on the wishes of the person making the acquisition and of the seller. In this case, with Christian Roulleau and his family, we wanted to acquire a heritage estate. We’re here, as at Dauzac, to stay, to develop and to grow both the quality of the wines and the reputation. That’s the buyer’s side. The seller’s side, the Tari family, who had owned it for 25 years, a quarter of a century, wanted to find a buyer who would continue the approach to biodiversity, respect for biodiversity, respect for organic farming that Guillaume Tari had begun when he was at the head of this estate. So in a way, it’s not just a question of money, it’s a meeting between a seller and a buyer. There’s a lot of emotion when you buy a vineyard. When you buy a vineyard, you’re not buying a used car, you’re not buying a house, you’re buying a lived experience, you’re buying a place where people lived for years and years, where people worked.
There were family events. There were moments you can’t simply wipe away. So there has to be, I’ll use an anglicism, a meeting of the minds. There has to be an intellectual and philosophical agreement between the two parties.
Antoine
The rational side is easy to manage. In any case, it can be worked through. It’s a matter of work and putting things on the table. Managing the irrational, the attachment, the lived experience, the memories, things like that, is a bit more difficult. How do you approach that yourself, when you’re in this kind of discussion?
Laurent Fortin
It takes time, it takes time and you have to give time to time. You have to let the parties express themselves, talk over a glass of wine, and complicate things a little. The Tari family kept ownership of a house that is 400 metres, 500 metres away as the crow flies. Today is Monday. Guillaume came over for a drink on Thursday evening. So in a way, there’s still a neighbourly closeness, even though he’s no longer on the estate. And I think you have to allow this kind of thing. You have to allow an attachment, an exchange. I have a lot to learn from him. He managed this estate and its heritage for more than 25 years. So as I said in our first podcast, you have to learn from those who know and stay very humble. So in this case, I ask Guillaume about this or that terroir. We’re almost on the eve of the harvest. It’s important to know how he saw things when he was in my position. So in a way we’re trying to have a transmission and a handover, an overlap that happens intelligently over the medium term.
The wines of Domaine de la Bégude
Antoine
We’re obviously going to talk about the wines, with great pleasure. So for those watching us, we did an extensive tasting with Laurent and Vincent, the cellar master, but we thought that with this beautiful landscape and a bit of conversation together, it was the occasion to taste Thyrsus. So the rosé and the red, we mentioned it a little earlier, so 50% red, 40% rosé, 10% white. For the red, it’s mourvèdre?
Laurent Fortin
Mainly mourvèdre, mainly mourvèdre and carignan.
Antoine
The rosé wine too, in fact.
Laurent Fortin
Absolutely.
Antoine
And for the white we have rolle.
Laurent Fortin
And ugni blanc and clairette.
Antoine
Listen, I suggest we taste Thyrsus.
Laurent Fortin
Thyrsus, a natural wine. So we’ve prepared a lovely charcuterie board, but I can see the wasps are enjoying it before we do. But there you go, we share with biodiversity, so we’re on a rosé first, here’s to your health. Thank you for coming all the way to La Bégude. We’re on a natural rosé. What I want from a rosé like Thyrsus is really to have, whether on the rosé or the red, crunchy fruit. We’re on a rosé with a very dense colour that is a gastronomic rosé. Very round, very enveloping. We’re on a lovely length on the palate. A little spice at the end. Really something simple to drink. No flaw. Sometimes people associate natural wines with certain flaws, like a slightly stable-yard taste or something like that. That’s not at all the case. Because making a natural wine doesn’t mean making one by accident. We make a natural wine, but we monitor the analyses so that it doesn’t drift towards slightly off aromas.
We’re on a mourvèdre, so in a way you can really imagine it with an Asian dish, a spicy dish. We had the pleasure of having lunch together today. The chef made us a slightly spicy carpaccio, but with our rosés it goes admirably well, precisely because they are gastronomic rosés. We’re not on poolside rosé, where you put ten ice cubes in, pour it and you’re not quite sure what you’re drinking. In Bandol, we’re lucky to have great reds and rosés with character. You asked me earlier what attracted me when buying it. I think what attracted Christian Roulleau, his family and me was wines with character, wines that held up. And that’s important. You have to be passionate before making a purchase like that.
Antoine
Absolutely delicious with the rosé, it was really incredible. Among the rosés, there’s one that is also fairly emblematic of La Bégude, which is Irréductible. Can you also go back a bit over its history? A slightly funny story.
Laurent Fortin
It has a slightly funny story. Irréductible was for many years outside the Bandol appellation, because it was perhaps a little too coloured for the appellation’s criteria. Until the moment when Wine Spectator, a great American wine and spirits magazine that tastes blind, voted it the greatest rosé in the world in 2011, and then the heavens opened and it became a Bandol. Bearing in mind that Guillaume and his family never changed the blend. But in a way Bandol is still an appellation of winemakers, and that’s something dear to me, being in an appellation of winemakers. We’re not on the “Champagne of Provence” that you see in other Provençal terroirs. Bandol remains an appellation of winemakers, and the winemakers saw that, indeed, a great rosé has to be brought into the appellation. So since 2011, Irréductible has indeed been a Bandol rosé with full legitimacy.
Antoine
We were lucky enough to taste that very 2011 vintage, which is particularly impressive in terms of ageing. I think that blind I would have got it wrong without any doubt, I’d never have said it was a rosé. Is keeping rosés still something that’s done a lot? Is it something you manage to talk about around you, to mention to the restaurateurs you also work with, surely?
Laurent Fortin
It’s something very dear to me and the sommeliers ask us for it. The sommeliers ask us to really have rosés for ageing, rosés that will have the possibility of being tasted in five or six or ten years. I had the chance to taste a rosé when we acquired La Bégude. A Domaine de la Bégude rosé from 2003. 2003 tasted in 2022. And the rosé, like you, I’d have put it in a black glass, I wouldn’t have placed it as a Provence or Bandol rosé. So yes, there is a demand for these rosés and more and more. I’ll give you a concrete example. About two weeks or a month ago, we had the chance to host here the filming of a Netflix documentary that will come out next spring on the rosé phenomenon. They came to La Bégude. Why? So that we’d be a bit of the antithesis of the pale rosé. Why, at La Bégude and in the Bandol appellation, do you make gastronomic rosés that work well?
And how do you go, when you’re a fan of poolside rosé, of a simple rosé to drink, to a gastronomic rosé? So I’ll let you discover the series on Netflix. But it’s interesting. Netflix is American. So we can see that in the United States, the shift to gastronomic rosé is being taken up by consumers.
Antoine
To make the difference between the palest rosé and a slightly darker rosé, I think it must come down to maceration times that are a bit longer?
Laurent Fortin
Absolutely. So first of all, you have the maceration time, that’s the first thing, but also the grape variety used. If you use cinsault, you can let it macerate for a very long time; with mourvèdre, you’ll quickly get something dark. So indeed, the maturation times are important, but so is the type of grape variety you use.
Antoine
You mentioned the United States just now. Is the shift mostly in exports?
Laurent Fortin
Today it’s 50-50: 50% France, 50% export, with the aim of turning, as we did at Dauzac, towards export.
The terroirs of Domaine de la Bégude
Antoine
You have a variety of terroirs. What impressed me in the tasting we did this morning is that you have around thirty hectares and about ten different wines. You have the ambition to make wines of place, so you really have terroirs that are very different within La Bégude?
Laurent Fortin
So mainly limestone soils, but with a really different variety of limestone depending on the altitude, depending on the exposure. So the point is to make plot selections. We have the plot selection, La Brûlade. La Brûlade, in front of us, is made of very ferrous soils, red soils. So La Brûlade is our grand cru in a way. Then, in all the plots, you have specificities, and some are such that within a few years we’ll easily be able to vinify intra-plot and micro-plots. All of that to do what? To showcase our know-how and the place. What is a terroir? A terroir is a place, it’s a climate. And the know-how of the winemaker who works it, that’s what a terroir is. So we have a cellar master, a technical director, Vincent, whom you met earlier during the tasting, who are deeply passionate, people who know winemaking, who know the geography, who know the vine.
So in a way, you have to give the consumer the opportunity, or the opportunities, to taste on a Bandol terroir like ours different cuvées from different micro-terroirs.
Antoine
We talked about the rosés. Shall we talk about the reds now?
Laurent Fortin
So I’ll pour you Thyrsus red. Here we’re at 100% mourvèdre. Aged in amphora. So why aged in amphora? Because for this wine, we really wanted crunchy fruit. We’re in IGP Méditerranée, outside the appellation. Why? Because the Bandol appellation requires a blend of at least two grape varieties.
Antoine
And you need wood too, don’t you?
Laurent Fortin
You need wood, you need 18 months of ageing in wood. Here, we chose to have the expression of the fruit. We want something that is really moreish, and here I think we’re on a real treat. On the nose, you have the typicity of mourvèdre, you have the little touch of white pepper already on the nose. A very delicate palate. You have the impression of biting into a grape that has just been picked. That’s the intention. A light saline finish that calls for the second sip. Really, we’re on something that goes perfectly. The amphora goes perfectly with mourvèdre, it brings that micro-oxygenation that mourvèdre needs. Once again, a parallel between cabernet sauvignon, which I know well in a Margaux terroir, and mourvèdre. Both need oxygen. So there you have a wine, Thyrsus, 100% mourvèdre, and a natural wine with no flaw.
Antoine
I find it extremely moreish.
Laurent Fortin
We make little of it, we make little of it. And I have to say that with Thyrsus, we’re a bit a victim of our own success. There’s real demand, there’s real demand.
Antoine
La Brûlade that you mentioned is the equivalent of a grand cru.
Laurent Fortin
The equivalent of a grand cru? Yes, the equivalent of a grand cru for us. If I had to make a pyramid of our wines, indeed today I’d put La Brûlade right at the top of the pyramid, the terroir on which we have the pleasure of tasting and talking together today. Then you have Thyrsus in red and rosé, then Irréductible in rosé, the estate wines in red and rosé, and two whites that are at the same level. An estate white and a white made in amphora. In fact, in the tasting that I encourage you to watch on video, we finish the tasting with the whites. We don’t start with the whites, precisely to show the capacity our white wines have to hold up, even after red wines made from mourvèdre. We have white wines with really lovely character.
The relationship between Château Dauzac and Domaine de la Bégude
Antoine
So there’s Château Dauzac and La Bégude. How do you see the interactions between these two estates? I find there’s an interesting element here, because there’s a kind of continuity in the range, or a break in the range. You can see it however you like, with a Margaux estate classified in 1855, which is perhaps something expected, and alongside that, an estate in Provence where you perhaps have a bit more variation in terms of the colour of the wine, in terms of winemaking. How do you see the interaction between two estates like that, within the same range?
Laurent Fortin
I think the two are completely complementary. As you rightly said, when you’re in an 1855 grand cru classé like Château Dauzac, you’re on something that’s already set, understood. We know there will be immaculate lawns, we know we’ll be served with silverware, we know there will be great wines. We know the winemaking methods are top of the top. We know the terroirs have been known and recognised for hundreds of years. When you arrive here, I’ll come back to my answer to the first question you asked me. It’s love at first sight. You arrive at something with a view like this, with a view over the bay of La Ciotat, with terroirs unlike any other. In a way, the two are complementary and we notice that our importers at Dauzac, who are the great specialists in fine wines around the world, are interested in La Bégude.
There’s a real interaction between the two. There are also many company managers who work across both, whether in finance, human resources or the back office. But also some sales people who talk about the wines both in France and for export. So yes, there are indeed connections between the two properties, and it’s in that spirit, of course, that we acquired Domaine de la Bégude.
The olive oil of La Bégude
Antoine
The last time we saw each other, you’d taken an online course on olive oil. So I have a first question that’s fairly simple, which is: did you pass it? Did you get a diploma from that course?
Laurent Fortin
If I’d known you were going to ask me that, I’d have come with the diploma. But actually, I’m going to send it to you so you can frame it for me, and that’ll be my Christmas present. You frame it for me and send it back. So the answer is yes.
Antoine
My neighbour is a framer.
Laurent Fortin
There you go, plus you’ll get a discount.
Antoine
I’ll do it for you with great pleasure. Joking aside, olive oil is an important element here at La Bégude, there are around 800 olive trees. You have the ambition to go up to a little over 2,000. So in a few words perhaps, but why olive oil, and how is it made? Earlier you were explaining to me that there are also many parallels between olive oil, between the olive trees and the vine. How did you discover that? And how does it feel now to make your own olive oil?
Laurent Fortin
So before being an olive-growing property or a wine-growing property, we are a Bandol property. And in Bandol, every property, when you walk around, has vines and olive trees. Olive trees are part of Bandol’s culture, part of Provençal culture. So it’s natural to take an interest in them. There are 850 olive trees today that we pruned this year in February and March, before the rising of the sap. We have a real ambition to plant. As you said, I’m going to go up to 2,000 olive trees. Today, we have seven different varieties. We produce a single olive oil. Why? Because, like wine, it’s a blend. I want an olive oil that is, once again, and I’m repeating myself, the reflection of the terroir. So we have an olive oil that is neither too fruity nor too floral.
We have an olive oil that embodies the sophistication and the terroir of La Bégude. So in a way, the vine and the olive are complementary. We have a plot, where I’ll take you later when we go back down towards the property, where you have several rows of vines and, in the middle, olive trees that have been there for 100 years, and the two work in complete symbiosis. The vine has its very deep root network, the olive tree its shallow root network, and the two don’t bother each other. And on this plot we produce an excellent olive oil and an excellent wine.
Antoine
How do you sell olive oil? Do you sell it the same way as wine?
Laurent Fortin
So I might shock you. Olive oil doesn’t get sold. People ask us for it. People ask us for it, we’re incredibly lucky. There are some lovely olive oil estates in Provence. There are some that win medals every year at the agricultural show, and you’ll get the same answer from them. When you make a good olive oil, people will come and ask you for it. And that’s the case today. Today, the 2022 vintage of olive oil that we made, I have a few bottles for family, friends and a little at the cellar door. That’s all. We’ve already sold everything. So when a restaurateur buys our wine, falls in love with La Bégude, they want our olive oil. We’ll stay reasonable, but the price isn’t an issue. They know that La Bégude’s olive oil will be connected to the wine, so it will be very high quality.
Antoine
On the olive oils, you mentioned it when talking about vintage, but it’s written “La Bégude olive oil, 2022”. Does it keep too?
Laurent Fortin
Of course, of course. Olive oil keeps.
Antoine
Are there vintage effects on olive oil?
Laurent Fortin
Like on the vine, like on wine. You have the vintage effect. Let’s take a completely opposite example. A year when it rained a lot. You won’t have the same olive oil as a year when there was drought. You’ll have a greater concentration if there’s drought and a greater dilution if there’s a lot of water. Of course. The olive tree is the sounding board of the terroir, like the vine. So there’s a parallel.
Antoine
Indeed, we’ll definitely do a special podcast on olive oil.
Laurent Fortin
And we’ll taste across several vintages. There you go, we’ll taste across several vintages and you’ll be able to see that there are indeed some really interesting differences.
What’s next after Domaine de la Bégude?
Antoine
So on this one, I’m a complete novice when it comes to olive oil. I’m not yet qualified on that front. I’d be happy for you to send me your course.
Today, you’re busier and busier. Ten years ago, there was only Dauzac, and that’s already a lot. Today, there’s Dauzac, La Bégude, the négociant houses. How is that going, and above all, is there still more to come on top of all this?
Laurent Fortin
Is there still more to come on top of all this? Here, I’m going to pass. I’m not in the habit of passing, but I’m going to pass. Without necessarily telling you everything, it’s clear that Christian Roulleau wants the wine division to keep growing in terms of assets. So, are we going to stop there? Probably not. But we’re not going to acquire just anything either. It still took us almost 18 months of negotiations to reach our goal with Domaine de la Bégude. There’s still a lot of work to do. The task is hard at Domaine de la Bégude. I’m lucky to be surrounded by colleagues who are extremely motivated and extremely present at every stage of the estate, whether here or at Dauzac, of course. So, the next property, yes, we’re looking, indeed, we’re looking at the right bank in Bordeaux, we’re looking at the Rhône valley. I won’t be too specific either. We’re looking at various things.
Is it right away? Is it in three years? Is it in five years? I can’t tell you, but it will have to be love at first sight and a heritage purchase.
Antoine
Well then, if people are listening to us and you have that in stock, Laurent has promised me a finder’s fee.
Laurent Fortin
And a bottle of olive oil.
Antoine
From an old vintage. So be nice to me.
We’ve covered a lot of things. Is there a topic we’ve missed? Something dear to your heart about La Bégude that we haven’t mentioned?
Laurent Fortin
Everything is dear to my heart at La Bégude and everything is dear to my heart at Dauzac. You know, I have two daughters today. I have two properties. There isn’t one I love more than the other. What haven’t we covered? I think we’ve covered a lot of things. Wine tourism perhaps, if I may, a little. Because a wine estate can’t be an estate if it isn’t open to the public. We’ve taken the decision to truly reopen La Bégude for corporate events, for private events such as weddings, and so on. And for the visit of a couple, a family who want to see what a real wine estate looks like in a legendary appellation like Bandol. So we’re really going to develop, or redevelop, wine tourism as we did at Dauzac many years ago.
Conclusion
Antoine
I have three questions left that are fairly traditional on this podcast. The first is: do you have a recent favourite tasting?
Laurent Fortin
Yes, yes, absolutely. 2014 Clos de l’Oratoire Saint-Émilion. It’s something that brought me a lot of emotion. A tasting I did at home with friends, a wine I knew by name because everyone knows Clos de l’Oratoire in Saint-Émilion, and really a great tasting emotion. I didn’t expect to find this wine at that level of quality.
Antoine
Wonderful. Do you have a wine book to recommend to me?
Laurent Fortin
That I’ve read recently? No, I’m sorry, I’m not at all into wine books at the moment. I read about motorsport.
We’re very close to the Castellet circuit, so I read up a lot on the racing teams that are at Le Castellet. There you go. So I keep reading the RVF and other wine news, the Bettane + Desseauve, and so on. But a wine book to recommend to you today, I’m absolutely without one. I should have revised all that. And what else are you going to ask me?
Antoine
And so my last question is: who is the next person I should interview, in your opinion?
Laurent Fortin
We talked about it. We had the chance to have a drink, you and I, last night with Marine, your partner. You already know everyone! Wait, yes I do know. Aubert de Villaine.
Antoine
If you know Aubert de Villaine, I send him a letter once a year and I won’t stop until he says yes.
Laurent Fortin
He’ll say yes, because he’s a really good person.
Antoine
If he’s listening and wants to prove it, here’s his chance.
Laurent Fortin
And you’ll bring me back some samples!
I hope you enjoyed this interview. If so, don’t forget to share it around you and to discover the wines of La Bégude. If you’d like to support me, discover The Wine Galaxy wine cards and these wine glasses that will be perfect for your tastings.
