33 A Family Affair

THE ACQUISITION OF Lynch-Bages by my grandfather in 1939, followed two years later by that of the Société Civile des Ormes de Pez, is where our family’s involvement in the wine business began. Maintaining the family character of this heritage, to which successive generations have remained attached for more than six decades, is a difficult exercise in navigating a sea strewn with legal and fiscal reefs.

Originally, and during the war years, Lynch-Bages and Ormes de Pez were the personal property of my grandfather, Jean-Charles Cazes. It was only in 1946, after my father’s return from captivity, that two Sociétés Civiles were created for the properties. Jean-Charles, who had a large majority in the management, split the rest with his four sons.

When Henri, the eldest of the children, died in 1955, his shareholding was divided between the partners. During the 1960s, my grandfather gradually passed on his shares in the company to his three surviving sons. But, company or not, he remained the only one in charge and his sons had no say in the matter. And the sons didn’t really care.

For 30 years, their father demonstrated his skills as a vigneron. Moreover, all three of them followed a path far removed from wine growing: Marcel and Gilbert in the general management of Crédit Lyonnais; André, my father, in the insurance business.

From 1965 onwards – by which time he was 88 years old, although still manager of the two non-trading companies of Lynch-Bages and Ormes de Pez – Jean-Charles handed over the day-to-day running to André, who was living in Pauillac. He took on this job alongside the cellarmaster, and in agreement with his brothers – a sometimes delicate situation. I have recounted the story of how my father, overloaded with work in his agency, absorbed by his mandates as mayor of Pauillac and general councillor, had in 1971 thought about selling the properties. I offered to come and help him.

Above: Jean-Charles is now in charge of our family business, under the watchful eye of his three sisters.

Below: In 2018, the whole family gathered with Thereza and I to celebrate our 50th wedding anniversary.

In 2006, health problems forced me to take a break for a few weeks. This kind of break is always conducive to reflection. It was now 33 years since I returned to Pauillac to settle down with my wife, who was willing to follow me, and our children.

The good fortune of our new life was that we started at a time when the wine business was going to undergo more changes in a few years than in the whole of the previous century. Our children are now grown. Jean-Charles, after starting out as a management controller in the Brazilian subsidiary of a large French industrial company, changed careers. In 2001, he joined our trading company, where he worked to promote Bordeaux wines in all markets around the world.

When he was 32, he seemed to be tempted by the many opportunities that were opening up to him. This was at the beginning of 2007, and I felt the time had come for me to take a step back and hand over the management of our business to him. I knew that he had prepared himself for this new responsibility and that he would be well surrounded by the very efficient trio that had accompanied me for many years: Daniel LLose, technical director; Malou Le Sommer, commercial director; and Pierre Doumenjou, financial director. A solid team that Nicolas Labenne reinforced in 2005 by taking over the technical management at Lynch-Bages.

A few years later, in 2011, I gave up my beautiful office to my son and took refuge in the nice room on the village square, opposite the terrace of the Café Lavinal, where I collected some of my books and memories. I had full confidence in Jean-Charles’ ability to run our family business, and had the feeling that I had succeeded in carrying out, at the right time, a peaceful generational transfer and avoided the temptation to fight the ‘battle of too many’, the classic enemy of the end of one’s career, in all professions.

Today, I am no longer subject to the pressure of daily professional life, but I am happy to give my opinion when I am asked, which sometimes happens. I get involved in the action, see people and visitors frequently knock on my glass door. I enjoy these meetings and they keep me in touch with the life of the vineyard.

I sometimes try to imagine what would have happened if we had not made these profound changes to the structure of our company. I am convinced that sooner or later we would have ended up in a deadlock from which it would have been impossible to escape. And that the only option would have been to sell the whole thing to the highest bidder… This is the outcome I wanted to