Gonet Famiy : Champagne/Bordeaux

03/11

Vigneron

Winegrower Champagne/Bordeaux

GONET family

Champagne/Bordeaux

From the bubbles of Champagne
to the still wines of Bordeaux

A sister, Sophie, supervises and works the 40 hectares in Champagne, the Vintage Classed Growths of the family-owned estate Michel Gonet. Charles-Henri and Frédéric, two complementary and accomplice brothers, settled in Bordeaux since 1986, develop a range of still wines. A family saga.

Charles-Henri Gonet

You can not drive on the A62 motorway from Toulouse, at the level of Cadaujac, without catching a glimpse on your left of a witness of the past… the Château d’Eck. Vestige of the history of Bordeaux, invaded by ivy and wild grass, as a sleeping beauty over whom Charles-Henri Gonet settled in the Château Haut-Bacalan in Pessac—leaned in order to infuse her with a new impetus. The building and the two towers with slate roofs of the Château d'Eck, bought in 1998, have been restored. It is being studied to create a little winery to vinify the twenty hectares on the spot and welcome the customers.
But the wine adventure started from 1986. After viticultural and oenology studies, followed by a trip through the vineyards to better know the terroirs for still wines, Charles-Henri decides to come and live in the Bordeaux region. He invests in the Château Lesparre in the Bordeaux Supérieur appellation, an estate of the early 18th century owned by the family De La Thibaude and mentioned in the second edition of the Féret published in 1868. His brother Frédéric rejoins him. Together they develop the vineyard as well as the management and computer infrastructure of the firm (Frédéric's passion). On the land, they start planting over the vines, using, as in Champagne, steel, and not wooden, stakes. They make all possible experiences… and the vineyard gradually grows from 50 hectares up to 130. “It was a challenge for us to develop a vineyard in Bordeaux Supérieur. I had a feeling that with means and a qualitative goal from the start, we could make wines which would have personnality and typicity. That is why from the very beginning we planted 5,000 stocks per hectare for a more serene farming, and worked a lot the vines to obtain a vegetal matter with a potential and a good maturity of the raw material.” Charles-Henri explains.
They also decide to capitalize on the appellation Graves de Vayres, often unknown by the consumers and connoiseurs from Bordeaux, discovering great terroirs..

Frédéric Gonet

“Our vineyards have always been followed up in more than integrated farming. If you consider the vintages 2004, 2005 and 2006, we conducted only three treatments. Even in 2007 we did not go further than five treatments… It was becoming obvious that the groundwork in the vineyard enabled us to consider a conversion into organic farming… Château Lesparre, in transition, is to receive the certification in 2011. Then we will turn towards biodynamics for a more healthy environment and wines that will reveal even more their terroirs.”
Charles-Henri has developed export for a long time and China is not a new market for him. For some twenty years, thanks to tourism and encounters, he has set up reliable professional relationships. It seemed so obvious to receive the Chinese film director Yibai Zhang's team last summer. The latter had chosen Bordeaux' region and its landscapes for the romantic side of a new episod of the series “Love until the end”. Soon millions of Chinese will see on their TV screen the two heroes, Li Yapeng and Xu Jinglei, enjoy a glass of Château Lesparre and Haut-Bacalan…
A nice French touch!

Florence Varaine