Gérard Perse, who passed away on July 19th, was responsible for one of the most dramatic transformations in St Emilion, reshaping château, vineyard and wine at Château Pavie. And yet Gérard was not born to wine; delivered into a modest suburban home on the outskirts of Paris, in 1949 (a great Bordeaux vintage), he was the very embodiment of the self-made man.

He worked casual jobs in his youth – wielding a paint brush alongside his painter-and-decorator father at times – and his greatest talent seemed to be cycling; he was no stranger to victory when in the saddle, and it was a passion that would stay with him until late in life, when he could on occasion be seen cycling along St Emilion’s rural routes.

It was in youth that he met his wife, Chantal; they were married in 1971, and they began to work together to grow a small business. Initially they traded in fruit and vegetables, and it was a success, generating enough revenue for them to invest in a small supermarket. Before long Gérard and Chantal had developed a chain of supermarkets with numerous branches dotted around Paris, and the business grew to incorporate a second chain. Eventually they sold both retail businesses, as a result of which they were self-made millionaires, which came in handy when they started looking to invest in Bordeaux.

Gérard (pictured above in 2012) had enjoyed a bottle or two of St Emilion through the years, and appreciative of those wines with a little bottle age, his intent was to produce high quality but ageworthy wines. His first purchase was Château Monbousquet, on the St Emilion plateau, bought in 1993; a capacious property, it has served as the Perse residence ever since. The wines were good, undeniably improved by the arrival of the new owners and the investment they brought. Nevertheless, such light soils would not permit the production of the wines of which Gérard Perse dreamt.

That would only come with the acquisition of Château Pavie.

Château Pavie had great terroir, situated on the south-facing Côte de Pavie, but under the direction of the Valette family the wines were widely regarded as inadequate, reflecting neither the potential of the slope, nor the property’s Premier Grand Cru Classé B status. I would not argue with such assertions, although I have to say I can recall positive encounters with both the 1986 and 1989 vintages, albeit many, many years ago now.

Gérard oversaw a dramatic reshaping of the estate, expanding the diminutive chai, building new facilities (pictured below), and moving the barrels from their prior resting place, the limestone caves of the slope behind the property. These caves were not impervious to collapse – one such episode in 1974 had cost the Valette family 53 barrels of wine – and it was wise to move them to a more secure location.

Perhaps more important than this programme of upgrade and improvement, however, was the shift in style of the wine. In the search for an ageworthy but also high-scoring style, Gérard brought in Michel Rolland, and following fashion the wine was made with more concentration, more extraction, and it was shaped by oak. The results found favour with Robert Parker, the pre-eminent critic of the era; the scores, and the prices, began to climb.

The style was not without controversy, and anybody who was drinking Bordeaux in the early years of the 21st century will recall the Parker-Robinson spat over the 2003 Pavie; Robert Parker adored it, and it’s fair to say that Jancis Robinson did not. Gérard remained demure throughout; after all, why interrupt two big-name critics when they are stirring up so much publicity for your estate and its wine?

Gérard Perse’s acquisitions and achievements did not stop with Pavie; the year before, in 1997, he had also purchased Château Pavie-Decesse, which would subsequently be absorbed into the Pavie vineyard, in stages, the last remaining portion being subsumed in 2022. This was also the fate which befell two of his other purchases, La Clusière and Bellevue Mondotte. Along the way he also acquired Clos Lunelles in Castillon, which remains in the hands of the Perse family today. His ventures also included restaurants and hospitality; he acquired the historic L’Envers du Décor restaurant in St Emilion, as well as the Hostellerie de Plaisance, renaming it Hôtel du Pavie, which now boasts a Michelin two-star restaurant. It is fair to say that Gérard helped to reshape not just Pavie, but the town of St Emilion itself.

Along the way, the buildings at Château Pavie underwent another dramatic remodelling; this time the results were rather more palatial, the two main buildings joined by a huge unifying foyer (pictured above), and inside, it was all marble and gilt, a world away from the tired little building in which the Valettes had laboured. Most noteworthy was the inscription carved in stone above the new entrance – Premier Grand Cru Classé A – a status achieved with promotion to this rank in the 2012 St Emilion classification. Pavie had arrived. Perhaps Gérard, who I think always saw himself as something of an outsider, felt he had too.

Always an affable man, Gérard Perse was eternally charming and welcoming. We first met during one of my earlier visits to Bordeaux, around twenty years ago, although few words were exchanged; I was travelling in a group, and the hectic pace of the primeurs ensured I was leaving Pavie almost as soon as I had arrived. More recent visits to the region, either during the primeurs, or to taste the most recently bottled vintage, always included a visit to Pavie. Gérard would often come to say hello, amiable and as interested in what I was up to and how I was doing as much as I was interested in tasting his wine. This might sound commonplace, but it is surprising how many proprietors delegate all this work to their technical directors or similar, but not Gérard. He loved Pavie, and he sensibly wanted to check out the ruffian who had come to taste it!

It is certain that Gérard made his mark on St Emilion, and undeniable that he did so on Pavie; and this will be his legacy, this leading first growth carrying the memory of his investment and his passion into future centuries.

I send my condolences to his wife Chantal, his daughter Angélique, son-in-law Henrique, and the rest of the Perse family.