With the help of our family, we dedicated over a decade to meticulously restoring every aspect of it to enhance its natural beauty, pouring our heart, soul and savings into the adventure of our life. In the process we began to uncover the remarkable potential of the vineyard to produce grapes of Grand Cru calibre. This in turn shifted our focus to making wine that captured the exceptional potential of the vineyard, and so Chene Bleu was born. Now with the wines on their own thrilling journey we have come full circle to share with guests from everywhere our excitement about this very special place, its wines and more.
Today, its heartbeat is carried forward through the resolve of our family and team, eager to build on the traditions, practices and knowledge that its forefathers would have shared. Coming from local villages as well as lands afar, we aspire to using our combined skills and passion to create experiences that go well beyond the traditional definitions and expectations of hospitality and viticulture.
I travelled extensively in my youth, growing up in a multicultural, multilingual, family, and nothing in my previous career in international finance, business and think tanks prepared me for the existential joys of becoming a guardian of this ancient land and historic estate, wishing to leave it better for the next generation and sharing it with fellow travellers.
Xavier grew up in France and is a man of the land, however his studies and career took him abroad and on the road until this place caught his heart and beckoned him back to his roots. Everyone here seeks to live by those values. Beyond hospitality, we wanted to create a sanctuary where we and our guests, in spite of busy over-committed lives, can reconnect with the parts of ourselves that want to be at our best, to surpass ourselves, to question things, to learn as much as we can, or to just be.
We hope to welcome you as part of the family. You are welcome to chat in the kitchen with our chef or head for the vegetable garden to pick vegetables and fruit for supper. Equally, spend some time with the gardener to find out how we are seeking to spearhead sustainable practices, whether composting or beekeeping, to stay in harmony with this rich natural environment, at the heart of the UNESCO biosphere.
