“My father gave me something very, very good,” Madeleine Herbeau, Director of Château Barbebelle told me recently. “The Château was already very successful with good quality and good production, and we sold all the production. I want to preserve that,” Herbeau said emphatically. “I don’t know how to make the best wine ever because that is not my background but, with marketing and commercialization, I think I have something to add.”

Herbeau may not have studied oenology but wine is in her veins. She was born and raised on the Château. After completing studies at the Sorbonne in Paris and the EDHEC Business School in Lille as well as a corporate internship with Nestle Co. in Paris, Herbeau returned three years ago to take the reins of Château Barbebelle, alongside her father, name. She was just 25 years old: in all likelihood, the youngest director of a Château in the region and female to... [...]