The beautiful story!

The interest of investors for the vineyard is not refuted, and it is not always simply a question of money. Sometimes passion is involved, as it was the case four years ago when the industrial Philippe Kessler chose the Château Calissanne, on the hills of Aix-en-Provence. In front of the Etang de Berre and of the hills of the Estaque, it is one of the most famous domains of the region. A thousand hectares, of which 107 are planted with vine-plants and about fifty are covered with olive trees. As he was looking for a vineyard in the south of France, it is not amazing that the Chairman and managing director of CIPM International fell in love with this historic place. The only negative point: the state of the vineyard was not so good and some installations were very old, particularly cellars. So he had to be ready to work hard to “restore the standing of the domain in the continuity but without revolution”. To do this work, the new owner could trust in the team already in place. Jean Bonnet, the vineyard manager since 1976, Denis Langue, one of the oldest workers of the domain and sales manager as well as Bernard Grandchamp, the oenologist. “Together, explains Philippe Kessler, we decided to improve the quality of our wines to reach perfection.”

2005, June 4 - © Le Figaro Magazine

Other information :
• Coteaux D'aix En Provence
• Château Calissanne