Château de Targé: Édouard Pisani-Ferry
It might be tempting to think that Édouard Pisani-Ferry had it easy, coming from a well-to-do politically active family, but this is not the case. Édouard was born deaf, and the norm at the time would have been for him to be shipped off to a special school. His mother Fresnette, however, refused, and Édouard went to the local school, with several hours of extra home tuition each day so that he could keep up. He went on to study at the lycée, and then to read agronomy at Montpellier. He eventually returned to Château de Targé in 1976, no doubt feeling ready to take on the family business.
At this time the domaine was being run by his mother Fresnette and a régisseur. They worked 15 hectares of vines, and it was the norm for two-thirds of the harvest to be sold to the local co-operative. With the other one-third they would make their own wine, which they sold either locally or in Paris, the latter helped by the family’s many political connections in the city. Édouard arrived with a good sense of business management from his studies, but was perhaps not so skilled in making wine; he had finished his studies up with a wine internship that lasted one month, so he was short of practical experience. The only advice he had was that offered by his mother. It was then that Pierre Seillan rolled up, with everything he owned in the back of his car.
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