Initially interested in a career in the culinary area, Liz attended a Cordon Bleu course in London and found herself drawn to wine, which quickly became her passion and her career. Having been at Glengarry for over 20 years, Liz travels abroad regularly, meeting with our fine wine suppliers in Europe, maintaining strong relationships first hand and ensuring a continued supply of the rarest and the best fine wine.
Situated on the Côtes d’Azur in Bormes-les-Mimosas, this is a part of the southern French coast that is not as you’d expect. It’s a part that I have fallen in love with and when visiting this year with family, it was a delight to show them what I call the real south of France.
This is not the home of the high-rise buildings, stripped umbrellas and deck chairs on the beach, rather Léoube sits on the seaside amidst native forest. The estate stretches 4km along the coast beside a rocky shoreline with gorgeous white sand. The land closest to the sea is covered in protected forest. This is not the easiest part of the world to produce top quality wines, the recent fires that ripped through the south of France destroyed many hectares of the forest on the property, fortunately all of the team and the wines were saved.
The property is a total of 560ha of which 65ha are planted in vineyards. So, who owns this unique piece of land in such a special part of the world? The property was purchased in 1997 by Lord Bamford who owns JCB – that’s the yellow and black earth moving machinery. Lord and Lady Bamford also started and own Daylesford Organic, an organic farm with retail presence as well. In purchasing Léoube the Bamford’s brought to the south of France their love of Organics and the land, rejuvenating this old property (Léoube dates back to the 14th century).
On purchasing the property, the Bamford’s made a very smart choice in winemaker, Romain Ott. In fairness, they did not have to look far, their neighbouring property being Domaine Ott. The Ott family share the same environmental approaches to viticulture and winemaking as the Bamford’s aimed to have at the centre of Chateau Léoube. The viticulture at Léoube is done with a great deal of respect for the land, the vines are deep-rooted and low yields are maintained. Care of the vines and winemaking is done in accordance to lunar cycles.
The majority of Léoube’s production is Rose (70% of production), a beautiful aromatic wonderfully fragrant Cote du Provence Rose. We have been importing the rose for several years now and this year are delighted to add to our offering tiny parcels of their white and red wines. We’ll be tasting the entire range at the wine club evening I’m hosting at Glengarry Takapuna in November, I’d love to see you along.
Glengarry Takapuna Wine Club Tasting - Château Léoube: Thursday 2nd November, 7pm start, $20 per person.
