Domaine Beauséjour: David Chauveau
For many years Gérard Chauveau soldiered on single-handed, but following his involvement in a car crash during the 1990s he began handing over more of the responsibility to his own son, David Chauveau (born 1967). At that time the vineyard still boasted 25 hectares of vines, all Cabernet Franc (there has never been any Chenin Blanc here), and most of the wine that was made was sold direct to clients, many of them regulars who dutifully knocked on the cellar door once each year.
If Gérard had been able to step completely away from the domaine and leave everything to the next generation, the path Domaine Beauséjour has since taken might have been different. As it was Gérard Chauveau could never quite let go, perhaps understandable given that he had built all this – the vineyard, the cellars and the house – from scratch. He continued to run the estate from behind the scenes, even when he became increasingly infirm and bedridden. Said Ivan Massonnat, the modern-day proprietor of Domaine Beauséjour:
“In the end, Gérard was so unwell, he was confined to his bed. But he kept control – if any documents needed his signature, staff had to bring them to his bedroom.”
