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From left to right, Jérôme Leroux, Jean Cordeau, Nicolas Labenne and Franck Debrais

On a morning in October, a man walked among the vats. The last harvests had been received and the wines had begun fermenting. He shook the hand of most he met, his eyes sharp, his smile warm. Some called him Mr. Cordeau out of respect, but he'd rather you call him Jean. That October morning, he had come to talk of his past, of his history with Lynch-Bages and the Bordeaux vineyard, of the sixty vintages he has worked on. Read on to find out more about this man of passion.

His career began when barely 22, a young agricultural engineering graduate of the National School of Agriculture in Montpellier. He started his first job on 2 August 1958 as an agricultural consultant near Blaye, France. A new technical post created and tested by the Gironde Chamber of Agriculture. In 1970 he was appointed head of the Chamber’s vine department, and ten years later founded the laboratory for analysis and agronomic advice in Blanquefort which he managed for fifteen years.

With time, he became an expert in the vine and its behaviour. He even wrote a book on the subject.
Then came retirement, and Jean decided to bring his thirty-eight years at the Chamber of Agriculture to a close. But his passion lived on, a fact reflected in his activities, and he chose to launch his own business. Contacted by various different chateaux, he became a self-employed consultant.

In the space of ten years, and without even realising it, he gradually left his imprint throughout the Bordeaux vineyard.

Since 2006, he has been happy to share his lifetime of knowledge and know-how at no cost, on just two conditions: that he finds the mission interesting and that he likes the people he meets! Fortunately for us, Nicolas Labenne, Technical Director for Lynch-Bages, satisfies both criteria hands down. The two men share the same passions, for rugby and the vine, so when they work together their try is generally converted.

According to Jean Cordeau, Lynch-Bages enjoys particularly harmonious soils with different gravels, which create a great strength and finesse. He helped choose the strains used for the Petit Verdot plot. And readily admits that this grape variety is one of his favourites, because it produces tannic wines, both round and harmonious, never rough.
He is glad to lend a helping hand at Nicolas Labenne's request, in order help the vine along. You simply have to wander through the rows with him to realise that, at the age of eighty, he is familiar with every detail, a knowledge he is pleased to share with contagious enthusiasm. When asked what his favourite time of year is, he’ll say it’s when “I tremble at the same time as the vine”, in reference to bud break and flowering, crucial periods over which the risk of frost and coulure hang heavy. “And the harvest too”, which brings first predictions, “and when the vine is dormant”, for the pruning... like any enthusiast, he finds it hard to choose.

Although he began in the 1950s, when most of the vineyard was worked on horseback, he is not one to regret the past. According to him, Bordeaux wines have never been as good as they have in the past twenty years. “Before then, great vintages were almost an exception.” Although he would probably never say that, if they are better today it is also thanks to men like him.

Roger Mau

Most Médoc cellars have been frequented at one time or another by cats. Their very presence was enough to keep rats and mice at bay. Lynch-Bages was no exception. At one time, cellar master Roger Mau jealously guarded a cat who had taken up residence in its cellars. We’d bump into him from time to time in one of the many hallways, where he used to prowl. He had no name, and simply became “Le chat de Monsieur Mau”. Every day he’d receive a plate of milk, served by the cellar master beneath the wooden vats in the fermentation cellar. Roger Mau assumed the task throughout the week. And he’d return to look after his cat at the weekend, when the cellars were otherwise deserted.

One Saturday morning, in 1975, Roger Mau made his way to the fermenting room as usual armed with his milk churn. No sooner had he entered the room than a smell attracted his attention. When he looked up, he could see smoke filtering through the slatted floor. It was coming from above. Mr Mau rushed up the stairs and saw flames reaching about twenty centimetres at the top of the sixth vat in the middle on the left, licking the top three feet of its upper section near the hatch. The cellar master wasted no time and filled a bucket with water from the nearby tap, easily extinguishing the fire just as it was beginning.

What had happened? The day before, he’d issued instructions to “sulphur” the vat. This involves burning a sulphur wick inside the vat to release sulphur dioxide, which acts as an antiseptic and disinfects the wood. Normally, the wick, which is attached to a 25-cm long wire hook, is hung at a reasonable distance from the vat wall, just like in barrels, in order to avoid any accidents. Because sulphur produces very small flames when it burns, there is a reasonably low risk of fire spreading over the wood. Unfortunately, the person who performed the task late Friday afternoon had hung the wire on the edge of the hatch closest to the wall. The incandescent wick was therefore in contact with the vat’s wooden staves throughout the night. Fortunately, the fire hadn’t started immediately but had been smouldering all night. When the wood finally caught fire, early Saturday morning, it coincided with the time when the cat usually took his breakfast.

Because there were no employees on the premises, which is quite normal for a Saturday, there is no doubt in anyone’s mind that if Roger Mau had not brought his cat his morning plate of milk the fire would have spread rapidly. And there would be nothing left of our historic Lynch-Bages fermentation cellar. It is even likely that the fire would have spread beyond the fermenting room, which at the time communicated directly with the barrel cellars and the chateau itself.

So in our new facilities we should be thinking of erecting a small monument in memory of "Le chat de Monsieur Mau"!

- Jean Michel-Cazes, 22 September 2017 - 

 

Who’d have thought it? The Lynch-Bages white might never have existed if a nurseryman hadn’t mixed some white grape vinestocks in with the vineyard’s red by mistake. And the story doesn’t end there, on the contrary, it led to an unexpected turn of events...

In the 1970s, the Cazes family actually bought bottles of white wine from for their personal consumption. It was Daniel Llose who persuaded Jean-Michel Cazes to use these white grapes, peppered by mistake around the estate, to produce his own wine. A few intruders were indeed mixed up with the red vinestocks by the nurseryman at the time. This is how Blanc de Lynch-Bages came into being, in 1978, a small, personal collection of the equivalent of one barrel a year.
Unfortunately these bottles, intended exclusively for family consumption, did not escape the attention of a particularly zealous customs official. The result? A triple sentence: false plantation declaration, false harvest declaration and false inventory!

By his own admission, Jean-Michel Cazes today recognises the sanction was in fact a blessing in disguise. In 1988, he decided to plant a new vineyard using the white vines grown traditionally in Bordeaux, and in 1990 he began marketing his production. Which is how the Blanc de Lynch-Bages was born.

Stephen Bolger, Yin Zheng,Juliette Binoche, Xu Zheng

If you had to write a synopsis for January 3rd, it would include fun, sharing and a wonderful atmosphere. That day, the Lynch-Bages vineyard, the VINIV cellars and the harvest room were transformed into a life-size film set for the Chinese entertainment show “Lost in Food”.

An unusual setting for an exceptional cast: our ambassador of French culture, Juliette Binoche played opposite Yin Zheng and Xu Zheng, two very famous actors in China.

The Cazes family, VINIV CEO Stephen Bolger and our team of wine specialists also took up the filming challenge. These amateur, but no less talented actors accompanied the three celebrities in a series of difficult challenges on the theme of wine. Following instructions given by Juliette Binoche, Xu Zhen and Yin Zheng had to try their hand at blending, do some highly technical vine pruning and pass the difficult test of pronouncing names of varietals.

The day ended with a final gratifying snap of the clapperboard. The leading and supporting roles then came together around a festive meal, to discover more of our Bordeaux heritage. They enjoyed spit-roasted Pauillac lamb prepared by Yves Bruneau, accompanied by a jeroboam of Lynch-Bages 2008 and a few bottles of Ormes de Pez. A fine end to a unique encounter fusing French know-how and Chinese culture.

This special Lynch-Bages episode of “Lost in Food” was aired on 18 February on Zhejiang TV, one of the most important channels in the Middle Kingdom.

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