✒ Remembering Jean-Michel Cazes
A large void has appeared in the Medoc with the passing of Jean-Michel Cazes, a void which will not be easily filled. There are some people who are born to be at the centre and who through their own dynamic character change the course of events, and one such person was Jean-Michel.
Back in the 1970s, the majority of vineyards weren’t making any money – the stratospheric prices that the top wines fetch today would have seemed a pipe dream. It was the opening up of the US market in the early 1980s that changed Bordeaux’s fortunes, and Jean-Michel was the Pied Piper of Bordeaux who brought the US wine lovers and, later on, the Asian wine lovers to the region, and in doing so changed Bordeaux’s fortunes.
When I had the idea of starting The Wine Conversation, the very first trip I made was to Pauillac to see Jean-Michel. He and I had a long history together, and I knew he was the one person I could talk to about the fledgling project, and who would be tolerant of my inexperience with recording equipment when I interviewed him. The night before we recorded, we had dinner in Pauillac, and afterwards he drove me around the small town, showing me where his grandfather had lived, the bakery, the insurance office he worked in while trying to keep the vineyard in the family (his father had suggested selling it, as it wasn’t making money). Pauillac was his home, a rare occurrence in the Medoc, as most owners live in Bordeaux or Paris. The next day, as we were about to record, the builders began banging away, creating the new cellar, so we went to Cordeillan Bages, found a relatively soundproof room, and over the following hours, he generously unfolded the fascinating story of his life. What was to be one “Great Wine Life” programme turned into three – and we are relinking them here to listen to.
I consider him one of the greats of the wine world, not just Bordeaux. His warmth, humour, and generosity helped hundreds of people become interested in wine. When he hosted a masterclass at the Decanter Fine Wine Encounter, I overheard one attendee say as they left the room “that was the equivalent of hearing the Beatles in the Cavern Club!”
““I consider him one of the greats of the wine world, not just Bordeaux.””
In the first episode, he talks movingly about his father (who had been a prisoner of war) returning from the war, and how Jean-Michel had wanted to be a doctor but was persuaded to try engineering. This led to studying in the US, and when he returned to the Medoc his knowledge of English gave him a huge advantage over his neighbours when the US market opened up. In the second episode, he talks about how modern techniques in winemaking revolutionised Bordeaux, and Emile Peynaud’s huge influence in creating modern Bordeaux. He reminisces about his early wine-business trips to the US and then to Asia, where a contract with Cathay Pacific made Château Lynch Bages one of Asia’s most popular wines. In the final episode he looks back on the AXA years – where he added the responsibility of Château Pichon Baron to his agenda. He also tells how he expanded the AXA holdings to Hungary and the Douro. A truly great wine life, generous and enlightening.
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