Jean-Michel Cazes’ powerful description of the transformation not just of the Cazes family’s estate – the renowned classed growth Château Lynch-Bages, one of the Left Bank’s most treasured crus – but of Bordeaux’s entire wine scene. Witnessing radical change in the vineyards over the last 50 years, breakthrough vinification technology, and a sequence of stellar vintages that reignited a global passion for the wines of Bordeaux, he charts the path of this wine to a new look that shook the world… literally, from provincial Pauillac to the fringes of outer-space! Translated by leading Bordeaux writer Jane Anson. How the Cazes family survived danger and deprivation during World War II, and struggled through the brutal economic downturn of the 1960s and ’70s when even the finest grands crus ‘could not be sold’… Working with the ‘revolutionaries’ who changed Bordeaux’s fortunes: Alexis Lichine, Philippe de Rothschild and the legendary Emile Peynaud… How Jean-Michel’s skills as a young IBM ace helped him develop the first broking programmes for Bordeaux’s dawning En Primeur scene Taking Bordeaux to the world via New York, Napa, Texas, Canada, Hong Kong and then – ‘you never know where wine will take you!’ – into space! 1982 and the Parker Era: Bordeaux’s turnaround and new-found stardom in the eyes of the world. Pauillac, Margaux, Sauternes and Pomerol: Jean-Michel’s influence extends beyond his home vineyards to the beautiful Châteaux of Pichon- Longueville, Ormes de Pez, Petit-Village, Suduiraut and Haut-Batailley… With a bit of Bordeaux ‘know-how’: Jean-Michel’s unflagging interest in the global wine business takes him ‘abroad’ to the Languedoc and Châteauneuf-du-Pape, Portugal, Australia and Hungary… A family affair: a new generation of the Cazes clan greet the mid-2020s by fulfilling Jean-Michel’s dream of ‘Cordeillan-Bages’ – a gastronomic and vinous haven in the Médoc.
