At Château Cazebonne in Saint-Pierre-de-Mons: “We prepare for the future by drawing inspiration from the past”

By Rédaction Le Républicain Langon

Jean-Baptiste Duquesne, owner of Château Cazebonne in Saint-Pierre-de-Mons, acquired the estate in 2016 following a career in digital media as co-founder of 750.com. He is preparing for the release of his book “Bordeaux, une histoire de cépages” in October 2021. Despite challenging beginnings marked by frost and hail, he cultivates the vines based on the diversity of historic Bordeaux grape varieties. His approach aims to innovate while drawing inspiration from ancestral practices to prepare for the future in the face of climate change.

Jean-Baptiste Duquesne acquired Château Cazebonne in 2016 in Saint-Pierre-de-Mons, Gironde. A former digital professional and co-founder of the website 750.com, he turned to viticulture out of passion, with the aim of producing his own wine, innovating, and conducting research on Bordeaux wines. His early years were complicated by successive climatic hazards, such as frost in 2017 and 2021, and hail in 2018 and 2020. The article highlights Jean-Baptiste Duquesne's initiative to rediscover and replant forgotten Bordeaux grape varieties—having identified 53 and replanted 26—to prepare the vineyard for global warming. In October 2021, he will publish a book entitled “Bordeaux, une histoire de cépages”, which explores Bordeaux viticultural history and the crises weathered by the vineyard. The Cazebonne estate covers 38 hectares, including 3 hectares of new grape varieties, with a distribution of 75% red and 25% white, using methods such as horse-drawn weeding. The objective is to return to common-sense farming, enrich the soils, and harness the diversity of historic grape varieties for greater resilience in the face of climatic challenges.