Château de Pressac: Revitalisation
The authors of the 1922 Cocks et Féret noted that the estate remained in the hands of the Josselin brothers, with a production of 100 tonneaux per annum. Thereafter, in 1929, they sold the property to Maurice Castaing, but almost immediately he then sold the estate on to André Pouey (1902 – 1976). The estate remained under his control for many years, and according to the modern-day incumbent Jean-François Quenin “when the estate was being run by André things were going well”. Following André’s death, however, the property was then inherited by his son Jacques Pouey (born 1935). “It was from this point onwards that the property went into decline again. There were two branches of the family who fought over the domaine, and it wasn’t good for the quality of the wine”, says Jean-François.
It appears that the only solution was to sell the domaine, although the Pouey family do not seem to have been able to come to this decision for two decades. It was only in the late-1990s that the estate was eventually put up for sale, and in 1997 a buyer was found. It was the aforementioned Jean-François Quenin.
Jean-François Quenin
Jean-François Quenin (pictured) was not local to Bordeaux, although his wife Dominique was originally from the region, and this was perhaps partly responsible for their arrival. The second reason was that, thanks to his business acumen and perhaps a little good fortune, Jean-François had acquired considerable wealth. He had started out as an accountant for Arthur Anderson, and then he worked for an electronics firm which was sold to Kingfisher Group. The sale of this business generated a huge bonus for Jean-François, and he decided to cash out. Looking to invest his money in vineyards, Bordeaux seemed like the obvious choice.
