Château Le Gay: Catherine Péré-Vergé
Catherine Péré-Vergé was born Catherine Durand, the daughter of Jacques Durand; the Durand family are well-known in the world of crystalware, as they now run the largest lead crystal glass manufacturing business in the world, Arc International. The company was established by Alexander des Lyons de Noircarm in Arques, a suburb of Paris; this was in 1825 and the original name of this company was Verrerie des Sept Ecluses. In 1892 the name changed to Verrerie Cristallerie d’Arques, and it was in 1897 that the Durand family really took control of the business, eventually buying it outright in 1926. It is often reported that Catherine’s father Jacques ‘founded’ the business although I suspect it is more truthful to say that it was he who led the takeover at this time.
Catherine began working in the family business in 1959, when she was just twenty years old. At that time the business had only been in the Durand family for a little over 30 years, and there were 2,000 employees. She spent forty years working for the family firm, during which time it grew into a massive enterprise with an annual turnover of at least €1 billion, a business which employed 13,000 people and which turned out millions of items of glassware every year, under well known brands such as Luminarc. She was thus 60 years old when she finally left the family firm behind, an age when most would be happy to accept a peaceful and well-earned retirement. Not Catherine though, as for many years she had been developing another business on the side, somewhat smaller in scale than Verrerie Cristallerie d’Arques (which became Arc International in 2000) although no less a challenge. Catherine, variously described as direct, demanding or difficult, and certainly a force to be reckoned with, was entering the world of winemaking in Pomerol.
