The 17th century Château Lassègue is about 1.5 miles from Saint-Emilion, a place I’ve always wanted to visit. I’ve had a few wines from this fascinating Château and each is exceptional. Nicolas Seillan has been promoted to Winemaker and I had the opportunity to discover more about his background, his family story and the current (and future) happenings at Château Lassègue.
Following is a recap of our recent Q&A – Enjoy!
Grape Experiences: Congratulations on your promotion to Winemaker at Château Lassègue! Can you tell me a bit about your family’s heritage in winemaking?
Nicolas Seillan: Thank you, I am very pleased to hold this new title at Château Lassègue.
The Seillan family has been involved in wine for many generations; my sister Hélène and I are the seventh generation to represent our family, so it is in our blood…. We can trace back our roots to the late 15th century in Gers, a department in Gascony where my great-great-great grandfather designed the viticultural map of Armagnac; this chart provided the classification of the terroirs of the region. He also cultivated Armagnac varieties. My great grandmother, Malvina Guionie, who happened to have the best palate in the family, was a wonderful vigneron and it was she who taught my father how to prune a vine at Bellevue-Seillan, our family’s estate in Gascony (which we still own today).
GE: Has the family always been in St. Emilion?
NS: No. The family has, until recently, always been in Gascony, mainly in the Gers. My paternal great grandfather, Eugene Guionie, was from Cotes de Castillon, which is near Saint-Emilion. We first came to Bordeaux when my father worked for Raoul and Jean Quancard and managed several of chateaux in the region. We were there for some time until my parents met Jess Jackson and Barbara Banke, and moved to California to create Vérité in Sonoma County. While we kept our home in the area, we did not come to Saint-Emilion until our families purchased Chateau Lassègue together in 2003. By then I was working with Jackson Family Wines on the finance side and in 2006 I was asked to relocate to Chateau Lassègue where I learned to become a ‘vigneron’ from the vineyard up. It was an exciting opportunity and one that allowed me to return to my passion.
GE: What is your background in viticulture and oenology?
NS: It will be no surprise when I tell you that wine has always been a part of my life. From a very young age I remember talking about it, tasting it, smelling it… and of course, we were always around the vineyards as well. Like my father, I learned viticulture and viniculture from my family, in the vineyards with knowledge that was passed on to me from earlier generations.
GE: Can you explain your background in finance and marketing? Why did you decide to pursue that path?
NS: After studying economics at the Bordeaux University I earned my degree in Econometrics. I then joined my family in the United States and pursued an MBA in finance at Golden Gate University in San Francisco. At a dinner with my parents while I was working in banking in San Francisco, Jess Jackson invited me to work in the company and explore my love of wine in a new way. He was very persuasive. He knew, from personal experience, that a lawyer could become a winemaker and he thought that my background in finance coupled with my family history, was an organic lead-in to working with an estate and winemaking.
GE: Did you aspire to be Vigneron at the Chateau even when you were in a different industry?
NS: I have always been passionate about wine and winemaking, so while early on in my career I gravitated toward finance, it was not a big surprise when it did happen. For many years, while working at BNP Paribas in San Francisco, I ended up spending most of my weekends at our family home in Sonoma County and at the Vérité estate with my father. I really enjoyed the hands-on experiences my father invited me to discover in the vineyards.
Photo Credit: Chateau Lassegue
GE: How will you maintain the Chateau’s excellence and passion for winemaking?
NS: For me, it’s key to respect the terroir and maintain the style of Château Lassègue.
GE: Do you have any changes planned for the future?
NS: I believe it is imperative that we respect the tradition of the estate, which has existed for more than 250 years. While we have no big changes planned, we are always focused on ways to remain environmentally friendly, which is not only good for the planet but our vineyards and ultimately the wines as well.
GE: Will your wife be involved? If so, how?
NS: My wife Christina is and has been very involved in the many facets of running Château Lassègue. She knows how to prune a vine, she can conduct all the operations during harvest and she is a very talented wine “taster”. I may become her assistant in a few years…
Photo Credit: Chateau Lassegue
GE: Can you tell me about your style of wine with regards to the blends and/or the oak program?
NS: I like balance, finesse, elegance, and complexity. This is easy to achieve at Château Lassègue as we have many different types of soils with limestone and clay, which bring a natural diversity to fruit characteristics. We farm, harvest, and vinify block-by-block (we call this our micro-cru philosophy) to ensure all aspects are customized to each cru’s specific needs. This allows us to really take advantage of the exceptional quality of land where the estate is located. Our vineyards are south by southwest facing, which means our 40- to 60-year-old vines see an enormous amount of sunlight.
Our oak aging regimen adds another layer of complexity to our wines as we have access to and choose oak from 15 different forests (i.e., Vosges, Fontainebleau, and Ardenne, etc.) for our barrels. We believe that, like in the vineyards, the trees in the forest express a unique terroir as well. We are careful to match each specific barrel with a proprietary tasting protocol.
Once the barrels arrive from our cooper, each vinified cru is paired with a barrel from a specific forest with a specific toasting protocol for aging. Our goal is to create balanced, elegant, and complex wines that have tremendous ageability. We never want to overwhelm the wine with oak but ensure it can age in an environment most suited to highlighting its unique characteristics from the terroir where it was born.
GE: What makes the terroir so unique at the estate?
NS: We are really blessed. Château Lassègue has a very large diversity of soil types, incredible sun exposure (we are facing south/southwest), and old vines.
GE: Do you have favorite wine and food pairings?
NS: We love pairing the wine with cheeses like “Vieux Comté” when you feel the salt grains in your mouth. Christina is also a great cook. She makes a recipe of Atlantic codfish loin with onions and tomatoes; it is a fantastic pairing. On the sweet side, Christina makes a beautiful dessert of spiced pears with Armagnac that we especially love as it reminds us of our heritage. Perhaps like our pairing with fish, it is a little unexpected, but wonderful.
GE: What are your other passions… travel, cooking, sports, history…?
NS: History and architecture, playing the piano, and spending time with my family. I am a new father, and this is a very precious time for us.
Cheers! ~ Cindy
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