By Alain Dominique Perrin
We all remember the great french singer and poet, Georges Brassens:
“Never will you forget
The first girl you took in your arms”.
Neither am I likely to forget my first vintage: the year was 1983…
... Impossible!!
The grapevines were too young. I had harvested them with my buddies, and we had a wild time. Illi Nastase was one of them, and José-Luis Clerc, that other extraordinary Argentine champion. French singer Gérard Lenorman was there too.
But the wine was no good at all, zero!
I still have a few bottles of it in my cellar, for old times’ sake. The label was used that year only. But you wouldn’t even cook with it – that’s how bad it is. 1984 was not terrific either.
1985 saw a change of tune. The grapevines had aged. We did a serious job, we followed the rules... And we won a Gold Medal. The very first! That’s when I stopped making a game of wine and settled down to work for good.
Michel Rolland enters the story in 1988. At the time, he was not the star he is today. He was introduced to me by a friend of mine, Patrick Léon, who at the time was the General Manager of Mouton Rothschild… Michel worked with us for four years, from 88 to 91, when we were still with the Cooperative, and he was the one who persuaded me to leave it and to venture out on our own.
He very soon encouraged me to build my own wine cellar, which we did... We opened it in 1992, an average year… But that first “real” Lagrézette was nevertheless rather a success. Beyond the investment, which was a large one, it opened up new doors: a call for excellence, which we have never given up.
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