It's been another very busy week in the world of wine.
Lyon-based investment fund Solexia has acquired Meursault's Domaine Jean-Philippe Fichet for an undisclosed sum; Domaine Leflaive has released a book Hommage au Vivant ("A Tribute to Life"), which according to one reviewer "blends reflections, portraits, recipes, and labels in [a] beautiful tome"; Rioja winemaker Óscar Tobía has died aged 59, of heart failure; and Oltrepo Pavese's exports are bucking wine's more morose global trend, going up a reported 60 percent recently.
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It's also been a week for wine truck accidents with two trucks transporting wine (one near Bourges in central France, one in Catalonia) overturning on the roads.
But wait, there's more:
Major Bordeaux château sale back in court
The contentious sale of Saint-Émilion estate Château Beauséjour Duffau-Lagarosse was back in the Bordeaux courts last week, with the civil court of Libourne reviewing the transaction following an appeal lodged by the Cuvelier family (one of the losing bids) of nearby Clos Fourtet back in 2021.
A well-regarded estate (a Saint-Emilion Grand Cru Classé B property), Château Beauséjour Duffau-Lagarosse changed hands for €72 million in 2020, with the national SAFER organization (a body tasked with regulating the agricultural land market) giving the green light to the winning bid from Clarins cosmetics heiress Prisca Courtin in conjunction with Joséphine Duffau-Lagarosse.
In what regional newspaper Sud-Ouest said was "a dispute from another era" (while Bordeaux land prices are falling and vines are being ripped up), the sale effectively valued the estate's vineyards at €10 million per hectare (Château Beauséjour Duffau-Lagarosse's estate spans roughly seven hectares). The Cuvelier family, led by Matthieu Cuvelier, is looking to annul the sale.
However, while the ins and outs of the case certainly read as if they are from another era, the disputes and internecine conflict remain quintessentially Bordeaux.
Primarily under the judicial microscope is the SAFER organization's handling of the sale. Ironically, the organization was brought into the fray in 2019 by the Cuveliers themselves after an initial bid of €60 million from former soccer player and businessman René Ruello fell flat, leaving the Cuveliers facing a fellow Bordeaux family dynasty: the influential Hubert de Boüard and daughter Stéphanie of Château Angélus.
"[The Cuveliers] take a gamble: by bringing the dossier to SAFER themselves, they ask that the agency step in to replace the existing purchase agreement – a move that would also net the agency several million in sales tax," explained Sud-Ouest this week. "By doing so, the Cuveliers hope to pull the rug out from under their competitors by shortening the window for legal challenges, banking on the idea that the SAFER would see no reason to oppose the sellers' wishes."
Indeed, at a vote by the family members that owned Château Beauséjour Duffau-Lagarosse (32 individuals in total) the lion's share were in favor of taking up the Cuveliers' offer. Only two abstained: Vincent Duffau-Lagarrosse and his daughter Joséphine.
Here, things get wild.
At a meeting behind closed doors, SAFER gave the green light to the bid from the de Boüards, despite the Cuveliers reportedly banking on support in the SAFER boardroom from their own financiers, Crédit Agricole, which said the Angélus offer was more in line with the "identity and values of the local terroir".
"According to local rumor, this was a stab in the back," says Sud-Ouest.
However, the de Boüards' bid also falls at the next hurdle. Part of the sale process must involve the installation of a young farmer (in this case, "young winemaker") as a figurehead at the estate. This was set to be Stéphanie de Boüard, except that the Departmental Directorate for Territories and the Sea (DDTM), a regional body that implements public policies across planning and sustainable development of land and sea, finds that she is already registered as an agricultural operator and, as such, cannot be considered for the role.
Meanwhile, Joséphine Duffau-Lagarrosse had managed to get the backing of Clarins business mogul Prisca Courtin. This happened by way of (and bear with me here) her father's good friend François Jannoueix (a winemaker with numerous holdings on Bordeaux's Right Bank and in Sauternes) who had a chat to fellow businessman and château owner Jean-Valmy Nicolas (La Conseillante) who, it turns out, shares a chauffeur with Courtin.
The rest you know. While the Courtin bid went through in 2021, the Cuveliers formally appealed the sale later that year with a court later finding the case had merit.
Just what the outcome of this hearing will be is anyone's guess. One insider told Sud-Ouest that, were the court to annul the sale, it would be "a step into hell".
"No one can describe exactly what kind of domino effect might be triggered," said the newspaper. "The seller could be required to return the €72 million from the sale – funds that have already been distributed among roughly 30 shareholders – while the buyer might demand reimbursement for investments made since 2021."
There's more: SAFER's own insurer, Groupama, has reportedly stated that, should the sale be annulled, the "error involved would be so egregious that it would fall outside the scope of its coverage".
Another sticking point rests on the actual value of the property/sale, which, some have argued, is potentially more than double the going rate. Assessors are using the 2017 sale of Château Troplong-Mondot as a guide: the estate sold for around €4.7 million per hectare.
No decision has been reported at the time of going to press.
Burgundian winemaker builds AI winemaking app
A Pommard-based organic winemaker has developed an AI program to help manage his batches of must and fermenting juice in the winery. Joannès Violot-Guillemard, who took over the eponymous domaine just over 10 years ago after his father Thierry was in a serious accident, told French broadsheet Le Figaro the move to AI came from the need to adopt "extremely precise" control of the 36 cuvées at the winery.
The newspaper, which admitted in its introduction that "not a day goes by without those two letters – AI – cropping up in conversation", said Violot-Guillemard turned to AI despite not being comfortable with computers.
"However, well aware of the time – and therefore money – savings that automation brings, [Violot-Guillemard] began to consider creating a custom application to support his team during the harvest and aging processes," the paper said.
Violot-Guillemard said he wanted precision control of each batch, or cuvée.
"I wanted to precisely control temperatures, measure density, and anticipate potential increases in volatile acidity," he said. "With 36 different cuvées, the workload was becoming enormous. I needed an assistant, and I had the idea of creating my own [app]."
Violot-Guillemard then took to Claude (an AI chatbot, or Large Language Model, recognized for being particularly adept in coding applications for software design) to put together the code for the application. Although he knew computer-based, remote tank monitoring and control programs aready existed, he said these were too expensive for the estate, citing "tens of thousands of euros" against his development cost of €2000.
How much time and cost it took to produce/purchase the 36 probes in each tank, used to measure the likes of sugar concentration and alcohol, was not revealed.
Nonetheless, Violot-Guillemard his workers were "thrilled" with the new technology that alerts them to unusual patterns in the data. The program is also designed to adapt its alert parameters depending on the stage the wine is at in the cellar. Cellar staff can even interact directly with the app, even if it is also programmed to automate tank cooling on batches where required.
"I installed a screen where they can speak directly to the application in order to give it readings and instructions," he said.
He said all this year's fermentations went without a hitch.
Le Figaro said Violot-Guillemard was also working with a friend at Microsoft to develop a new app for farmers, due for release towards the end of the year.
2026 heat impacts Hospices de Beaune volumes
The 2026 edition of the Hospices de Beaune wine auction is down significantly in volume against previous years with the hot weather during the growing season cited as main reason volumes as much as halved for the white wines.
At a press conference in Paris this week, Hospices de Beaune wine director Ludivine Griveau said the 2026 vintage was "something I've never seen in the 26 years I've been doing this job". The early harvest (10 days earlier that the already precocious 2025 vintage) was also impacted by significant heatwaves throughout, particularly during fruit-set.
"The intense heatwave in May during flowering, [...] led to significant coulure (poor fruit set)," said French wine website Terre de Vins. "Crop losses occurred primarily at this time, particularly for the Chardonnays. June through August were marked by a succession of heatwaves, with average temperatures more than 4C above normal throughout the growing season."
Overall, quantities for the auction have been halved for white wines with reds showing a similar decrease (down 60 percent).
The auction, the 166th, is due to be held on November 15 and will see a total of 432 barrels ("pièces" as they are known in Burgundy, which hold 228 liters) and two feuillettes (half-barrels of 114 liters) up for grabs. This is broken down into 348 barrels of red wine and 84 barrels (and two feuillettes) of white.
This is down 107 barrels on the 539 sold last year. Last year's sale raked in a total of €18.7 million ($21.5m).
Vinho Verde develops AI label checker
Just to fill in Le Figaro's quota for AI mentions this weekend, we go to the Vinho Verde where the regional wine trade body (the Vinho Verde Region Viticulture Commission, or CVRVV) has developed an AI-based label scanner to help producers ensure their labels meet all official labeling requirements.
The program is designed to speed up response times for label approval, with producers waiting for the regional body to give the green light to the label before going ahead with printing them off prior to bottling. Officials currently process around 7000 labels annually.
It is expected the AI tool will cut down on response times with the machine able to scan labels and comb them for mandatory information (estate name, regional appellation, alcohol level, etc) as well as making suggestions for producers to review.
Dubbed SMARTLabel, the AI tool is being jointly developed by the CVRVV, the EVAG (the Center for Studies of the Vinho Verde Region/Quinta Campos do Lima) and INESC TEC (the Institute for Systems and Computer Engineering, Technology and Science – a research and development institute at the Faculty of Engineering of the University of Porto), and is expected to be operational by the end of the year.
"This is an important step in optimizing the certification process, as every certified bottle of Vinho Verde goes through the labeling approval stage. Given the increasing number of wines and the growing number of labels awaiting approval in the Region [...] we have high expectations for the very positive impact SMARTLabel will have on the daily work of producers and technicians, allowing them to focus solely on essential information," said Dora Simões, president of CVRVV.
According to Spanish wine website Vinetur, the project is being co-financed by the European Union through the NORTE 2030-ERDF program.
Rioja to produce huge wine surplus
Despite coordinated attempts to reduce Rioja's wine stocks (including crisis distillation and, in the past, green harvests to reduce yields in the region) the Spanish wine region is set to produce around 30 million liters of excess wine this year.
In an interview with regional newspaper La Rioja, agricultural union boss Eduardo Pérez Hoces – president of the Rioja Association of Farmers and Livestock Breeders (ARAG) – said this would put more downward pressure on wine prices.
"[We're] going to have almost 250m liters of wine with sales of only 220m," said Pérez Hoces. "That means we'll have almost 30m liters of excess supply, which will put downward pressure on prices again, even though it hasn't been a particularly productive year."
Indeed, the excess comes at an already difficult time for winegrowers in major regions across Europe, experiencing a combination of falling demand and, in 2026, a particularly hot and generally low-yielding harvest. Pérez Hoces said the region's vineyards would continue to shrink.
"There are vineyards – you only have to go out into the countryside to see it – that are already abandoned, and we're going to continue demanding subsidized removal programs," he added.
Indeed, there is currently little sign of light at the end of the tunnel for growers in the region.
"We've had six seasons with little to no profitability for winegrowers, and their savings have been squandered," he said. "Wineries should realize that winegrowers need support for the survival of viticulture. Prices have decreased this season in some cases, and although treatment costs have been lower because 2025 [sic] was a crazy year, we've had to pay much more for diesel, fertilizers, electricity... In short, things haven't improved."
