Château Viella

Appellation: Madiran

Proprietor: Bortolussi family

Year Founded: 1952

Size: 25 hectares

Farming: Organic

Claire and Marion Bortolussi’s great-grandparents fled west to escape the rising fascism in Italy, finding a place to call home at the bottom of a hill belonging to Château Viella, an 18th-century edifice surrounded by vines and facing the Pyrénées. They struck a deal with the owners of Viella to farm the land that they hoped one day they could call their own. After more than twenty years of getting to know the Tannat vines of the Madiran appellation, they heard that the vineyard was up for sale. Gathering up their courage, the Bortolussis made a modest offer, but selling to Italian immigrants was not a pill the owners could swallow. After some time, Viella was still up for sale. The owners reluctantly went back to the Bortolussis to see their offer still stood. Finally the land was sold and a family of Italian immigrants became landowners in the Madiran.

Two generations later, Alain Bortolussi receives a letter from French social security informing him that he will soon receive his retirement pension. For previous generations, children always took over their parents’ vineyards. Times have changed. Alain had always encouraged his two daughters Claire and Marion to pursue higher education and a career elsewhere than at the château. Claire had chosen to study law and had landed a job in Serbia working for the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Marion had become a marine biologist, working on wildlife conservation on the Amalfi Coast in Italy. Alain was ready for retirement but the future of Château Viella was a big question mark.

Over a shared vacation in Italy, the two young Bortolussi women admitted to one another that they missed their home in the southwest of France. Although life abroad was exhilarating, they both dreamt of coming home and taking over Château Viella, with a few reservations. Claire was overwhelmed at the thought of all the work in the vineyard but enjoyed office work. Marion couldn’t stomach the idea of endless paperwork and customer relations but loved being outside tending to the vines and winemaking. The sisters realized they would make the perfect team.

Since Marion would fly home first and Claire only a few weeks later, they decided to jointly write a letter to their parents to inform them simultaneously of their intentions to move back to Viella. They bought an international stamp and airmailed the letter back to France like a bottle in the sea. Time passed, and silence ensued.

A few weeks later, the postman delivered a letter to Claire and Marion. It was from their parents, who cordially accepted their daughters’ proposal to come home and become the fourth generation of Bortolussis at Château Viella.

Neighbors still look confused when they see Marion on the tractor. Claire has remodeled the brand, expanded relationships with customers, and had summer events at the Château for locals and visitors. The farming is transitioning to organic farming. When they blind taste the tanks and barrels as a family, Alain is regularly amazed at the flavor profiles of certain cuvées. Château Viella has undergone a serious make-over, with the security of having the Bortolussi parents and grandparents close by to continue passing on family savoir-faire and supporting the next generation.