Owner Profile: Bengt and Mette Sundstrom
Back in 2007 when Bengt and Mette were searching for a holiday home in the sun, Provence was not on the list of possible locations.
“Too many Scandinavians” laughs Mette.
The couple are the powerhouse behind Lauritz.com one of Europe’s largest online antiques auction houses. From designer furniture to antique nautical compasses to diamond rings and portraits and paintings, Lauritz is a treasure trove of unique items. The success of Lauritz gave Bengt and Mette the opportunity to purchase a dream retreat. They envisaged somewhere exotic and distant and far from home.
Then, while various estate agencies were scouring distant corners of the world, Bengt happened to see an advert in the Financial Times for a Provencal farmhouse. It couldn’t hurt to look?
The couple jumped on a flight to Nice. Over lunch with the owner – David O’Brien (son of the Irish race horse owner Vincent O’Brien) – it gradually dawned on both Bengt and Mette that they were going to buy the Chateau. The advert had not even mentioned vines. And, other than selling rare wines on their site, they had no experience in the wine industry. And yet there was something about Vignelaure they couldn’t ignore. They quickly made an offer and became custodians of one of Provence’s most iconic vineyards right in time for the harvest.
Soon they were receiving invites from French wine royalty, including the owners of the revered Domaine Romanee Conti, in Burgundy. The universal message to the new owners and wine industry virgins was that Chateau Vignelaure was not just another vineyard, it was part of Provence’s viticultural heritage. Bengt and Mette set about reviving the great estate and taking its revered wines to new levels.
#provence #provencewinetasting #provencevineyards #aixenprovence
