Wine can be an intoxicating business because you fall in love with it and get addicted to it. Karl-Friedrich Scheufele, co-president of the Chopard luxury watch business is one such lover of wine. He has declared his love for Chateau Haut-Brion often enough and also proved that his love was genuine by opening the rare Bordeaux specialist La Galerie des Arts du Vin in Geneva, way back in 1996. Incidentally, he also owns Le Caveau de Bacchus, a chain of wine shops with branches in Geneva, Gstaad and Lausanne.
Scheufele has recently acquired majorBergerac wine estate Chateau Monestier La Tour. He and his wife Christine had been on the lookout for a wine estate in France for a long time and did not want to compromise on the quality and were willing to wait till they got what they were looking for. When they saw Monestier La Tour, a 100-hectare hillside estate 20km from Bergerac, they simply fell in love with it. It is a high end property as far as vineyards are concerned. The property features 30 hectares of vineyards on clay-limestone soil. In addition it boasts of a large park.
The property was bought by Dutch businessman Philip de Haseth-Möller in 1998 and restored professionally and comprehensively. He restructured the vineyards and restored the 13th century chateau buildings. He brought in consultant winemaker Stéphane Derenoncourt and viticulturalist Claude Bourguignon in 2003 to support the estate director Jean de Laitre.The château produces wine under the Bergerac, Côtes de Bergerac and Saussignac appellations out of which 7,500 cases are red and 5,000 cases are white. The new owner wants to construct a new cellar to store the wines made on the estate as well as Bordeaux from his Galerie des Arts du Vin France.
Via: Decanter
