Introducing the - Peugeot

LIFE IN BLUE
LiFE in bLuE
Château
Peugeot in t
“Someone who knows how to taste wine doesn’t drink it any more, but savours its secrets… “ Salvador Dali
Château Guiraud, or what life has to offer
When Xavier Planty, the manager of
Sauternes estate, considered buying the
Château Guiraud, he appealed for finance
from two of his wine-making friends: Olivier
Bernard, the face of Pessac Léognan, and
Stephan Von Neipperg, the driving force
behind the most amazing success story of
Saint-Émilion. But it was a meeting with
Robert Peugeot, Chairman and Managing
Director of the family holding company, FFP
(a leading shareholder in the car-making
group), that was decisive. Peugeot knew the
area and was familiar with the great Bordeaux
wines. Won over by the conjunction of
promising factors, he knew that a vintage
wine first classified in 1855 was a world
rarity. Backed by strong world economic
growth, he was convinced that business
had great development potential and of the
long term viability of such an investment. So
the association was born out of a maturely
considered decision by the knowledgeable
financier and the wine-growers, each an
expert in their preferred field. Strengthened
by shared values and a well thought out
proposal, Peugeot became, in the name of
passion and reason, a majority shareholder
in Guiraud.
Château Guiraud wine is everywhere: from
the tables of top Parisian restaurants to
the wine lists of Emirates Airline. You find
bottles in the cellars of American collectors
and at the dinner parties of gourmets in their
thirties. These 100 hectares of vines, tucked
between Yquem and Filhot, have become
the source of one of the most distinctive
vintage wines.
Beneath the surface
The avenue of trees leading to the château
is impressive. It introduces you to a slightly
austere precision. But when you stand
looking up at the estate, the receding line of
trees, although planted at the same time, is
irregular, subtle evidence that the subsoil of
the Sauternes region has many strata: sand,
marl, chalk, clay and gravel, that you tread
on as you walk among the vines. The same
is true of the weather. In the mornings, the
area is plunged into Autumn, clouded in
mists brought by the Ciron, a tributary of the
Garonne, making the landscape slightly eerie.
As the day goes on, this mist is very quickly
replaced by a dry wind and warm sunshine,
ripening the fruit all at the same time. litre of
must) and cryoextraction (freezing the litre
20 21 PEugEOTCLub