Bordeaux wines. A pirate winemaker lends his vineyard hectares: “Pulling them up would be completely idiotic”

By Jean-Charles Galiacy

Jean-Baptiste Duquesne, owner of Château Cazebonne in Saint-Pierre-de-Mons, is offering to lend seven hectares of his biodynamically certified vines free of charge, rather than grubbing them up. This initiative aims to provide a stepping stone for an aspiring new winemaker with a solid project, amidst the Bordeaux wine crisis. He is also making equipment and his winery available to facilitate the temporary setup.

Faced with the wine crisis, Jean-Baptiste Duquesne, a former tech entrepreneur and founder of 750g.com turned winemaker, has decided to reduce the productive surface area of his estate, going from 30 to 23 hectares. Rather than uprooting the remaining seven hectares, he is offering them on a free loan to an aspiring producer, emphasising that grubbing them up would be “completely idiotic” and costly. This initiative allows a young winemaker to get started without the heavy initial capital expenditure. The loan covers red vines (Cabernet Sauvignon and Merlot) and white vines (Sauvignon Blanc), and includes access to equipment (tractor, sprayer) and the Château Cazebonne winery (vat house). The beneficiary will only need to cover consumables, estimated at around 20,000 euros per year. Jean-Baptiste Duquesne aims to offer a new winemaker a period of three to five years to build a network, build up stock, and gain the necessary experience before applying for a bank loan to establish an independent estate. This collaboration is viewed as a mutually beneficial partnership, bringing a “fresh perspective” and a “positive image” to the winemaker and his estate.