Sauternes second growth Chateau Broustet has been bought by the Taillan Group – in a forced sale against the wishes of the owners.
Former owners the Laulan family had recently been threatened with receivership, and a bank auction of the Barsac property was carried out on 30 September.
Didier Laulan, the head of the family, still owns a neighbouring, non-classified property, Chateau Saint Marc.
Guillaume Fourcade, Didier Laulan’s nephew and co-director of Broustet, told Decanter.com, ‘This was a forced sale. The frustrating thing is that the property was beginning to turn around, but we were not given enough time.
‘Although we sold the vines and the buildings, we still own the stocks of the wine up to the 2009 vintage and will continue to market it with Chateau Saint Marc.’
In the past few years, Fourcade has overseen, among other initiatives, sales of a non-vintage Sauternes in 100ml glass tubes under the name Sweet Broustet, and has been involved in marketing the chateau with Vogue magazine during Paris Fashion Week 2010, and with Mercedes Benz.
Broustet, which was bought for an undisclosed sum, will now become part of Taillan’s ‘Vignobles de Terroirs’ group.
The Taillan group owns wine merchant Ginestet as well as several Bordeaux chateaux including Gruaud Larose, Chasse Spleen and Haut Bages Liberal.
The group also has a 50% stake in the Taillan winery in China.
Written by Jane Anson in Bordeaux
