In 1994, I bought a dilapidated wine chateau in Bordeaux. My big dream was to make a wine with the level of a Grand Cru. An ambition you can only nurture if you have no idea what you're getting into. - TEXT ILJA GORT | IMAGE PEXELS.COM
To pay for the huge investments such a thing requires, we made a lighter variant alongside our Chateau wine: La Tulipe and later Slurp. That became a success, but climate change in Bordeaux meant we increasingly had to deal with extreme drought, heavy downpours and unexpected night frosts. To mitigate these risks, we started leasing vineyards in southern France and Spain. Such a thing brings a lot of extra work and we grew bigger and bigger. Meanwhile, my son Klaas (31) runs our Château. He grew up there and knows every vine, tree and stone. Together with his girlfriend Meriam, he also runs the château B&B. Reasons enough to change tack: we say goodbye to our babies Tulipe and Slurp.
Château La Tulipe gets a new name
We will hand over the operation of Tulipe and Slurp to our French partner Cordier, and change the name Château La Tulipe to Château Gort & Gort. This way, Klaas and I can concentrate on what everything starts with: healthy grapes. We are going back to nature. We have uprooted part of our vineyards and planted them with trees and shrubs for healthy biodiversity. Every day we are in the vineyard to observe those developments.
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Curious about the rest of Ilja's column? You can read it in WINELIFE Magazine 74. Order this one here!
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