Domaine Pellé: Modern Times
In more recent years the domaine has, sadly, seen the Pellé family experience tragedy which nobody could have expected or planned for. Henry’s son Eric Pellé joined the family firm in 1980, the fourth generation to make his living as a vigneron, and he was the third generation to wear the mayoral chain of Morogues, after he succeeded his father in 1989. It was under his direction that the first of the domaine’s single-vineyard cuvées were created, the same year he assumed control, this being the Clos des Blanchais, more recently named Les Blanchais. Disastrously Eric died in a car accident in 1995, bringing the natural story of succession from father to son that ran through the generations to a temporary end. Eric’s son Paul-Henry Pellé (pictured on the previous page) was at the time only nine years old, and the ownership of the domaine came to Eric’s widow, Anne Pellé.
Tragically this is not the only domaine profile on these pages which tells of a life cut short in terrible circumstances, and whenever I learn of these events, and meet the people who they relate to, I am always humbled by the fortitude and courage they have shown. This is certainly true in the case of Anne Pellé, who continued on with the running of the domaine after Eric’s death. In order to assist her in the harvesting and vinifications, she engaged the services of consultant oenologist Julien Zernott. Julien had worked a stage with the Pellé family when studying for his oenology degree, and so perhaps he was an obvious choice. He started straight away, and as a consequence when I first encountered the wines of this domaine it was during the Zernott-Pellé era.
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