Fleury Wines Selection Committee
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« Bordeaux's huge palette of fine wine stems from its being blessed with many essentials of successful viticulture: great terroir, a suitable climate and a know-how passed from father to son for generations. What better than a group of passionate wine lovers from different yet complimentary disciplines to taste, identify and select the best that Bordeaux has to offer for the Fleury-Wine classification. Real wines of excellence. »
Christian Delpeuch
President, Institut des Sciences de la Vigne et du Vin de Bordeaux Aquitaine (ISVV)
Former President, Conseil Interprofessionel des Vins de Bordeaux (CIVB)
President, Fleury-Wines Selection Committee« Epicurian by nature, I have a passion for quality and the sense of pleasure from taste which is born in all of us. In creating the Fleury-Wines diamond classification I am expressing this passion. In forming the Selection Committee I have done my best to assemble people with strong personalities who share my passion and my desire to share this with others. I submit wines to the committee who are asked to use their combined judgement and wisdom to award diamonds as they see fit. I have asked Christian Delpeuch, an independent personality and one of the great men of Bordeaux wines to head the Committee and it is he who will direct its work. »
Jean Fleury
President and CEO, Fleury-Wines -
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Christian Delpeuch
« After forty years devoted to all aspects of wine during which time I have visited the majority of the wine producing areas of our planet and tasted their best wines, I am convinced that in Bordeaux we have the finest diversity of "Terroirs" and the outstanding potential for the greatest vineyards. For this reason I have agreed to head this Selection Committee in a dynamic company dedicated to quality. »
Christian DelpeuchJean Fleury
« Whereas I owe to my mother my enjoyment of the good things in life, my father led me when I was very young to exercise my senses with wine tasting and to instil in my consciousness the debt that man owes to vignerons under whose responsibility wine is born and nurtured in their cellars. In parallel I started to play rugby at the age of five, and this was a formidable school in the meaning of team spirit.
It took me another forty or so years to begin to appreciate and begin to coherently balance these lessons from childhood which now gel in the birth of this Selection Committee. »
Jean FleuryJean-Pierre Xiradakis
« Jean Pierre Xiradakis is first and foremost a restaurateur par excellence. But he has many other parts, being a true ambassador of good grub and a whetter of appetites, who delights in the discovery of rare crus and unknown vineyards. He is also a travel writer, gourmand and full time epicurean who pay great attention to detail. He steals hearts and minds and exudes an aura of pleasure to the assembled company. »
Jean Pierre's great love is his restaurant la Tupina and to "feast there with bon viveurs*".
Jean-Pierre Xiradakis
Restaurateur, la Tupina, Bordeaux
* Phrase from the Wasps by Greek philosopher Aristophanes, 412 BCBernard Mallent
« My job as an oenologue that led me to discover the wines of the world and it is my passion for wine that led me to my job as a vigneron. When Jean Fleury drew me into this adventure I accepted to join the team with enthusiasm. Today, to bring my experience to this committee is a permanent source of pleasure involving discovery and new faces in surprising ways. »
Bernard Mallent
Wine maker and oenologistJohn Brownsdon
« After learning about wine and falling in love with it whilst working in Bordeaux, I embarked on a career promoting French wine and exporting it to the United Kingdom, one of the most competitive markets in the world. I sold my commercial business to retire but being something of a workaholic, I found I needed stimulation and have since devoted my time to commercial wine consultancy and to a lesser extent to lecturing, mainly to consumers. I am a past Chairman of the Institute of Masters of Wine. I was delighted to accept Jean Fleury's invitation to join the Selection Committee with its mission to detect Bordeaux wines of real quality. »
John Brownsdon MW
Master of Wine. International Wine Consultant
Note: Membership of the Institute of Masters of Wine is conferred on individuals who have succeeded in the annual MW exam held simultaneously in Europe, the USA and Australasia. The exam covers all aspects of wine including tasting and the subsequent submission of a dissertation.Lison Braastad
« I believe that I understand elegance and the balance of tastes, I am trying to bring a touch of femininity to the Committee's deliberations to guide them in the direction of softer, rounder and more voluptuous selections! Working in the communications industry the concept of this Selection Committee was an attractive proposition to me as the selections were aimed particularly at consumers at large. This natural sincere approach always gives me pleasure in discovering new delights from Bordeaux's vineyards. »
Lison Braastad
Designer and Communication expertJean Gazaniol
« This approach to selection proposed by Jean Fleury involving various disciplines of the professional wine trade family in Bordeaux is novel. It is very rare for Bordeaux negociants to have the courage to work in this way and propose some of the marvellous alternatives to wines of much greater notoriety giving the same degree of pleasure for a reasonable price. The wines selected will enchant you at a modest price and you will talk about them for a long time afterwards. »
Jean Gazaniol - Vigneron until he meets his makerPhilippe Moreve
Philippe Moreve says: « My parents had a few rows of vines which they tended in their spare time. We lived a simple nature based life cycle. Vines were pruned in winter and picked at the vendange in September when the plovers that my mother simmered with great care arrived. We were good Gascon peasants. I grew up and left home to seek my fortune as best I could, but irrespective of where I was able to find work it has always been through wine that I have managed to maintain the best contact with my culture and my roots. I am proud to be able to write that in taking on the role of the consumer in this committee I am following my family heritage. I am not ashamed to describe the pleasure it gives me. This role suits me well. Even very well! »
Philippe Moreve -