RdV Vineyards, the new winery determined to prove that Virginia wine could proudly be among the world’s best in quality and price, has been purchased by the owners of Bordeaux’s famed Château Montrose, the companies announced Monday in a joint statement released on the RdV website.
The sale represents the first entry by a Bordeaux powerhouse into the eastern United States and the first major foreign wine investment in Virginia since the Italian Zonin family established Barboursville Vineyards in 1976. Financial terms were not disclosed.
RdV founder Rutger de Vink will remain as a consultant until the 2024 harvest. The rest of the RdV team will remain on board, including winemaker Joshua Grainer, a master of wine. The winery will be renamed Lost Mountain Vineyards, in honor of the series of hills on which the vineyard sits, and will be under the direction of Grainer and Pierre Graffeuille, CEO of Château Montrose.
“The name change is a natural result of the purchase and a celebration of the new era,” the companies said in the statement, which was expected to be issued in Bordeaux on Tuesday. “The conversion of RdV, Rutger de Vink’s initials, into ‘Lost Mountain’ pays tribute to the extraordinary terroir of this ancient ridge once beloved by America’s founding father, George Washington.”
In an email sent to close contacts on Monday, de Vink praised his winery team and fans. “This time has given me purpose and happiness, not to mention the satisfaction of knowing that we have created a world-class wine and helped put Virginia on the world wine map,” he wrote. “Together we have created something that many said could not be done.”
Château Montrose is a leading producer in the St.-Estèphe appellation on the Left Bank of Bordeaux. Classified as second growth according to the Bordeaux classification of 1855, it has been owned since 2006 by Martin and Olivier Bouygues, billionaire brothers who run a family conglomerate operating in the telecommunications, media and construction sectors. They also own Château Tronquoy in St.-Estèphe, Clos Rougeard in the Loire Valley and Domaine Henri Rebourseau in Burgundy, as well as a cognac distillery and a truffle farm. This will be his first wine venture in the United States.
Those holdings and Lost Mountain Vineyards will be grouped into a new company called Eutopia Estates, according to the announcement. It will be headed by Charlotte Bouygues, daughter of Martin and Melissa Bouygues. Melissa is originally from Baton Rouge.
Montrose is the first Bordeaux house to invest in Virginia, but Old Dominion has enjoyed French influence over the years. De Vink recruited Eric Boissenot, a consultant to four of Bordeaux’s five first-growth chateaux, to blend his wines, and Jean-Philippe Roby to advise in the vineyard. Michel Rolland, Stéphane Deronencourt, and Lucien Guillemet have consulted elsewhere in Virginia. And currently there are several winegrowers of French origin in activity. Several Bordeaux wineries have properties or partnerships in the Napa Valley.
In 2004, after apprenticing under Jim Law at Linden Vineyards in Virginia and David Ramey in California, de Vink purchased a 93-acre sheep farm on Route 17 near Delaplane in Fauquier County. The estate now includes 18 acres of vineyards, mostly Bordeaux varieties, Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, Cabernet Franc and Petit Verdot, and a retro-modern winery that resembles a farmhouse on the outside and a concrete and metal temple to wine on the inside. inside.
Beginning with the 2008 vintage, RdV focused on two wines: a superior cuvée called Lost Mountain, based on Cabernet Sauvignon, and a second blend, Rendezvous. The juice that did not produce these wines was bottled as Friends and Family and occasionally appeared in stores or restaurants. RdV has also made small quantities of rosé and this year will produce its first white, a blend of albarino and semillon.
Even before RdV released its inaugural 2008 in April 2011, it was generating buzz as a potential first Virginia growth or American grand cru.
Critics were impressed with the initial wines, but were skeptical that any from Virginia could sell for $88 to $55 a bottle. De Vink proved the skeptics wrong: the wines were an immediate success and caught the attention of British wine writer Jancis Robinson and chefs Eric Ziebold and José Andrés. The wines have improved over the years and are now on the wine lists of many of the country’s top restaurants, including Le Bernardin and Per Se in New York and Bazaar and Minibar in Washington.
De Vink rejected the model of family hospitality in Virginia wineries. RdV does not have a tasting room and does not host weddings. Tastings are by appointment and cost up to $140 for a tour and tasting, including food and library harvests. Sales are primarily through a membership program, with the current release of Lost Mountain 2021 selling for $225 a bottle for members. Rendezvous currently sells for $110. The winery has about 2,000 members, de Vink said.
By focusing on one core wine, Lost Mountain, and without compromising quality, de Vink believed he could produce an extraordinary wine. He used the analogy of automobile manufacturers with a wide range of vehicles versus those that specialize in one exceptional product.
“I wanted to make a Ferrari,” he said.
The French buyers did not immediately respond to a request for comment, but in an interview, de Vink said RdV’s focus on quality caught Graffeuille’s attention when he visited the United States last fall to explore potential acquisitions. Martin and Oliver Bouygyes visited RdV in February and sales negotiations began shortly after.
When he launched RdV, de Vink often served his wine alongside Château Montrose and a high-end Napa cabernet sauvignon to show that he belonged at that level. Handing his project over to the Bouygues brothers “is like closing the circle,” he said.
De Vink, an avid mountain climber and skier, said he and his wife, Jenny Marie, will move somewhere in the western United States or Canada, where mountains and snow are plentiful.
Aside from the new name, the joint announcement of the sale did not give much indication of a major change of direction for the winery. Grainer, who has been with RdV since the beginning and earned the title of master of wine in 2022, said the charge of the new owners is to improve the vineyards so that more wine qualifies for making the superior cuvée. That will mean fewer gatherings, friends and family, he said.
In Montrose, the Bouygues built new production facilities and purchased additional vineyards. At RdV, at least for now, the emphasis is on continuity and “ensuring quality and reverence for the vineyard’s storied past as we steer it toward a promising future,” the joint statement reads.
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