Xavier, can you present us the business of Caves Fleury?
We are a family and traditional trade house, member of UMB (Union des Maisons de Bordeaux). Family as I co-manage the company with my mother Marie-Bertrande Fleury who is in charge of the administrative, financial and social departments. This entity has been created 60 years ago by my grandfather as a dissociation from the other activities of the family (production and vineyards, trade on fairs...), our family being involved in Bordeaux wine for 200 years... Traditional as we have included all the activities of the Bordeaux trade: we create and blend our own wines, we bottle château wines in our cellars, we buy final products, from the “small” château to the Grand Cru Classé. On the distribution side the French market remains very important for the firm. We took over the business of our Parisian distributor in 2005, hence integrating a range of wines representative of the French viticultural savoir-faire and of its numerous wine producing regions. It does not mean however that we neglect export that represent 50% of our business some years. We have one foot in the United States which enables us to import in America, and we opened a representative office in 2014 in Köln, Germany.
What is your approach of the wine and the vineyard?
I was fortunate to travel a lot, live and work abroad (in the United Stated among others), and thus to observe the image of the wine through the world as well as the different approaches of production in various geographic and economic conditions. To me, Bordeaux' vineyard has to keep on producing wines typical of its terroirs and not to try to look like some trendy foreign wines, is marvellous for its diversity, it proposes wine for every tastes! As for my personal approach, I woud say it has to remain a pleasure. No fancy words to appreciate or not a wine.
If you had to define your wines in a few words?
Authentic and various, but each of them keeps the specificities of the terroir it stems from.
A favourite cuvée?
Leo Vinis. I created this cuvée from the label to the wine inside the bottle. An innovative image while keeping an old fashion design, a blend dominated by Merlot, an aromatic wine, silky and supple, pleasant to enjoy at any time, and affordable for all (and which has been awarded prizes in different French and international contests).
Interview by Charlynne Zirah
— www.leovinis.com —
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