{"id":23767,"date":"2022-05-25T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2022-05-25T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/insidelaplace.rcassocies.com\/2022\/05\/25\/inside-la-place-the-man-who-loves-challenges\/"},"modified":"2022-05-25T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"2022-05-25T00:00:00","slug":"inside-la-place-the-man-who-loves-challenges","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/insidelaplace.rcassocies.com\/en\/2022\/05\/25\/inside-la-place-the-man-who-loves-challenges\/","title":{"rendered":"Inside La Place – The man who loves challenges"},"content":{"rendered":"

Henri Parent<\/h2>\n

Co-Owner<\/p>\n

Working at the estate since 2013<\/p>\n

Met by Gerda at the Ch\u00e2teau<\/p>\n

Ch\u00e2teau Le Gay & Ch\u00e2teau La Violette<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Pomerol<\/p>\n

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Gerda: Tell us about you…<\/em><\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

Henri Parent<\/strong>: I am a happy person, I do not take everything seriously. I do not consider myself the owner of Ch\u00e2teau Le Gay because it has its own existence. It belongs to Pomerol appellation. I am just serving the Ch\u00e2teau and a manager of the bottom-up strategy. I give direction to the company and my collaborators follow them in order to achieve goals together.<\/span><\/p>\n

Gerda:\u00a0What are the main challenges you personally face, in the practice of your work?<\/em><\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

Henri Parent<\/strong>: I love challenges. One of these challenges is to give a qualitative continuity to each vintage. Making a great wine in a great year is easy. I like difficult vintage. They are more interesting and intellectual to me.<\/span><\/p>\n

Three years ago, I added a challenge by buying an organic truffle field of 50-hectare, in the P\u00e9rigord Noir. I would like to link Le Gay with truffles: when you arrive at the Ch\u00e2teau, it has to smell of truffles (laughing<\/em>).<\/span><\/p>\n

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Harvest 2021<\/strong><\/h3>\n

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Gerda:\u00a0How did your harvest go?<\/em><\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

Florian Pesquier (winemaker)<\/strong>:\u00a0<\/span>We fought the frost for 12 nights. We used wind turbines and candles for 3 nights. Maturity arrived and we harvested for 4 days. It was difficult. It is easier when the harvest lasts two weeks.<\/p>\n

We are happy even though the yield decreased by 30% compared to 2020. It is important for your customers to know that the final blend is made just before bottling. The samples we present during the 2021 tasting will be a blend of 43 of our micro-vintages out of 45 in total; the vintage is amazing!<\/p>\n

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The brand Le Gay <\/span>today and tomorrow<\/strong><\/h3>\n

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Gerda: What positioning (s) do you want for your brand (s)?<\/em><\/span><\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

Henri Parent<\/strong>: We do not have the same notoriety as L’Evanglie, La Conseillante or Vieux Ch\u00e2teau Certan. Le Gay has a similar quality but at half price. It is the reality but not what I want for the Ch\u00e2teau. We are a rising star. We always have to do better even if our wines are already really good. The challenge is still present.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

I am surprised that people often say that our consultant Michel Rolland makes “parker<\/em>” wines at Le Gay. It is impossible for me. We let the terroir speaks for itself in each vintage thanks to micro-vinification.\u00a0<\/span>Micro-vinification is a sophistication of winemaking that allows the terroir to express itself!<\/span><\/p>\n

G<\/span>: How do your wines stand out, and are unique?<\/strong><\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

HP<\/strong>: Soon our wines will be unique because they are not organic … (laughing<\/em>). We are not organic but we deeply respect the terroir. For that matter I would l like to speak about three things:<\/p>\n