Biography –Bruno Prats

Biography – Bruno Prats
Born in Sète, France, on March 12th 1944, Bruno PRATS is the grandson of Fernand GINESTET, the world famous Bordeaux
wine grower and négociant, owner of Château Margaux, and of Jean PRATS, former President of Saint-Raphael a major
French spirit company of the time.
He received a degree in Agronomy from the Institut National Agronomique in Paris and a graduate degree in Viticulture
from the Ecole Nationale Supérieure Agronomique in Montpellier. This extensive educational background in wine making
added to family traditions and practical experience in the best vineyards of Bordeaux has established Bruno PRATS as a
confirmed oenologist who consider oenology as a mean of control far more than a mean of intervention. In his view the
purpose of technology is to better express the characteristics from the "terroir ".
In 1968 and 1969 Bruno PRATS worked under his uncle Pierre GINESTET at Château Margaux. In 1970 he took control with
his mother and two brothers of Château Cos d’Estournel, the famed Cru Classé of Saint-Estephe, in the Medoc. He had
been the CEO as well as the winemaker at Cos d’Estournel for twenty-eight years until the PRATS family decided to sell
the vineyards in September 1998.
Under Bruno PRATS Cos d’Estournel reached the unofficial status of "Super Second" i.e. the very few chateaux from the
Medoc which were classified second growth in 1855 and which wine is presently considered to be of equal quality with
the five First Growths. Bruno PRATS was for twenty-one years the President of the Syndicat des Crus Classés du Médoc
(the association of the Growths Classified in 1855). He is a member of the Académie du Vin de Bordeaux and a Vice
President of the Académie Internationale du Vin in Geneva. The French Republic made him an Officier de l’Ordre
National du Mérite.
Bruno PRATS lives in Switzerland, near Lausanne with his wife France. His elder son Jean-Guillaume is CEO of Château Cos
d’Estournel.
His second son Florent is with the Swiss private bank Lombard-Odier-Darrier-Hentsch.
In 1990, in association with Paul PONTALLIER, director of Château Margaux, Ghislain
de MONTGOLFIER, CEO of Bollinger Champagne and the Chilean oenologist Felipe
de SOLMINIHAC, Bruno PRATS created Viña Aquitania, a boutique vineyard and
winery on the outskirts of Santiago de Chile.
In 1999 he created Prats & Symington, a joint venture with the owners of the Port
companies Graham, Dows and Warre. P&S produces CHRYSEIA, DOC Douro,
considered by the critics as one of the very best Portuguese wines.
In 2005, with Lowell Jooste, from Klein Constantia and Hubert de Bouard from
Chateau Angelus, he created Anwilka Vineyard in Stellenbosch, South Africa.
www.fideliswines.com