Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
truffle pasta. Thierry had a sense of humour and was a great source of information about
the wine business and about our commune, leaving us guffawing at his anecdotes about
colourful local personalities. He grilled us on the places we had lived and visited, finding it
exotic, having never travelled outside Europe.
After serving a starter of mushrooms with goats cheese grilled on top I opened a bottle
of grand cru classé Pessac-Léognan, a white wine from the Bordeaux region that Sean had
given me for my birthday. We'd discovered this château on a visit to Bordeaux years before
and fallen in love with the wine. It didn't live up to the memory.
'Your white wine is better than this,' said Thierry.
Thierry wasn't just being polite; our white blend was better than the grand cru classé.
'It's not fair,' said Isabelle. 'Many of our Bergerac wines are better than these wines that
sell for multiple times the price.'
'I can tell from the people around the table at the wine association management meetings
that things are tough,' said Thierry. 'Some people have got serious financial problems. It
affects decision-making. People are closed to new ideas and tired.'
Bergerac was in a bad financial cycle. Prices were lower than they had been in ten years
but costs had more than doubled.
'Look at what is happening to people,' said Isabelle. 'Jean-Paul came to Saussignac with
his family to follow their dream of making wine. He and his wife worked together the first
few years as they both wanted to work in the business. It soon became clear that the farm
was not going to support both of them, even though there was enough work for two. His
wife got a job in Bordeaux and had a daily commute of more than an hour each way. They
were back in the life they had hoped to leave but with no money as compensation. Then his
wife got tired of it and decided to get a serious job again so she took a career opportunity
in the north of France to keep the family out of the red. Now they have to commute eight
hours to see each other.'
'He bought at the peak of the positive cycle. Now he's got the property up for sale,' added
Thierry.
I remembered how, at a recent winemakers' gathering, Jean-Paul had said the first vintage
was always full of hope. At last I understood how loaded the comment was. Modern farm-
ing realities had ground him and their dream down. Now their wine farm was a sinker for
them and he couldn't cut it loose even at a major loss. It made me more worried about us.
We had followed a dream like theirs. Now they were being crushed by it. Were we going to
wind up the same way, with a broken family and a massive financial burden?
'Is someone keeping an eye on him?' I asked Isabelle.
'I think so. But we have other friends in Monbazillac who left the rat race to seek a better
life, and now the only way they survive is by selling direct, so one of them is on the road
at wine fairs and markets the whole year. They never have time together as a family. They
regularly leave their kids with friends because they have to be away constantly to survive.'
