How Laithwaites happened - part fourteen

Dear old Monsieur Cassin, incensed that his nephew had turned down the offer of his vineyard "because it is not Saint Emilion!" rang early one morning to tell me I was going to buy his vineyard. At a very good price. AND he would rationalize his 24 tiny plots into something more manageable. I said yes if we could also have his barn to convert into a winery. And so Château La Clariere was born.

Here's old André and the huge Labrue working the vineyards in 1980.






Monsieur Cassin found us a farmer; Guy Delage, father of our current farmer; Olivier, but we - the family - went every vintage to make the wine. I had no idea how to make the wine. But I had to learn pdq. I owe debts of gratitude to my mentors Peter Vinding-Diers and The Doctor; Tony Jordan. We did OK. Won medals even. And we still have at least six cases of every vintage from 1984 so from time to time I can show people just what I did.

Amidst all this Barbara managed to produce Henry in 1980, then Will '82 and Tom '83 … whilst still full-on M.D. But … a couple of months after Tom was born she went out one morning to do her horses and came back with a headache so bad she was screaming.

It was a brain haemorrhage. Could it have been a warning we ought to have heeded? Barbara was in the lucky 2% who survive - with no scars. She soon got better … and we carried on heedless as before.

It was still just her and me. We didn't know about how you delegate, neither of us had the slightest business training. Luckily there wasn't any real competition and Barbara tried to make sure none arrived by insisting we kept a low profile.

I was banned from going around boasting. The rest of the wine trade and the wine journalists found us secretive, despite us doing ever increasing amounts of advertising. It was true, we told no-one what we were doing, and probably a mistake.