Just after extra than 17 yrs manufacturing some of Tuscany’s most renowned wines in Bolgheri, Ornellaia winemaker Axel Heniz is heading back again to Bordeaux. Wine Spectator has figured out that Lawrence Wine Estates has employed Heinz to provide as CEO of Château Lascombes. Companions Gaylon Lawrence and Carlton McCoy purchased the Margaux second growth 6 months back.
“Axel is a learn of his craft and the perform he has carried out when overseeing Ornellaia and Masseto have taken this previously heralded estate to new heights,” reported McCoy, CEO of Lawrence Wine Estates. “I am thrilled to perform with Axel to carry Château Lascombes to its complete probable as a single of the biggest wine estates in the environment.”
Heinz has been estate director of Ornellaia and Masseto in the Bolgheri location of Tuscany considering the fact that 2015, right after commencing as winemaker for Ornellaia in 2005. He has gained a name as a single of the world’s top rated winemakers in the course of his time there. Born in Germany, Heinz grew up in Bordeaux, researched agronomy with a specialization in viticulture and enology at the College of Bordeaux and labored at Château La Tour Carnet and other Bordeaux wineries in the course of his early job.
“I am thrilled and honored to sign up for Château Lascombes,” Heinz reported. “Just after 18 yrs put in in Tuscany it is time for me to return residence. I intend on main this historic Bordeaux estate into its following wonderful chapter.”
Gaylon Lawrence owns a single of the premier farming empires in the United States, with hundreds of hundreds of acres of cotton, rice, corn and citrus stretching throughout sections of Arkansas, Missouri, Tennessee, Mississippi, Illinois and Florida. He owns 8 regional banking institutions in the South as nicely as big authentic-estate ventures in his hometown of Nashville and in the San Francisco Bay Space.
He grabbed the wine world’s interest in 2018 when he purchased the historic Heitz Cellar in Napa. Due to the fact then, he has acquired or introduced numerous other boutique wineries and launched an import/distribution organization referred to as Demeine Estates. Lascombes has a prolonged background courting back again to the 17th century, but area business associates say it requirements financial investment.
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