The Brunier from Châteauneuf-du-Pape
to the Bekaa Valley, Lebanon
It was Hippolyte Brunier who penned the first chapter of this
wonderful family story in 1898, in the village of Bédarrides, well
known as occupying the south-eastern portion of the
Châteauneuf-du-Pape AOC area.
He planted his first wine stocks on Plateau de la Crau, where
grapes had been grown since the 14th century and where, in 1972, Claude Chappe, the inventor of the optical telegraph, built one of his signal towers.
Hippolyte’s son,Jules, extended the estate to 42 acres and aptly named the fruits of his labors “Vieux Télégraphe”.
At the end of the Second World War, Henri, the third generation, had the formidable task of reviving the estate and shaping its destiny. Not satisfied with enlarging the Domain to a single expanse of 136 acres, he gave the classic appellation of Châteauneuf-du-Pape its full dimension, creating a “Vieux Télégraphe “style and disturbing it via all the world’s finest outlets.
Since the early 1980s, his two sons, Frédéric and Daniel, have been tending to the family concern.
Domain du Vieux Télégraphe today represents 173 acres of Châteauneuf-du-Pape; Domaine La Roquète, acquired in 1986, covers 79 acres; and Domain Les Pallières, acquired in 1998 in partnership with family friend Kermit Lynch, is a single 309-acre estate in Gigondas with 62 acres of wines.
The same year 1998, the Brunier brothers invested in Massaya winery in Lebanon. To start with, the involvement of the brothers was shy, but 10 years later they got passionate with the Bekaa Valley and are currently involved in the production and Massaya marketing.
Its centenary just celebrated, Les Vignobles Brunier, guided by the fourth generation of vignerons has kept its original philosophy intact and very much alive.
www.vignoblesbrunier.fr