Gérard Perse, owner of Bordeaux wineries Château Pavie and Château Monbousquet, as well as the St.-Emilion luxury hotel Hotel du Pavie, died July 19 at the age of 75 from cancer.

His company, Vignobles Perse, posted on social media: “We will miss his passion for St.-Emilion and its wines, his sense of hospitality and sharing around a fine table, his enthusiasm and determination. May he rest in peace and may his creative energy continue to inspire us.”

Even in recent years, Perse would cycle through the hills and vineyards of St.-Emilion, covering dozens of miles in a day. He was always driven, a quality that allowed him to rise from humble beginnings in the Paris suburbs to one of the most consequential vintners in Bordeaux of the last three decades.

When he bought Pavie in 1998, it enjoyed one of the finest locations in St.-Emilion, with vineyards on the limestone slopes just outside of town. But it had been neglected. Perse worked relentlessly to elevate its wines and have it recognized as one of the top wineries in the appellation. Through his hospitality business, he also made St.-Emilion a top destination for wine lovers.

A Fierce Work Ethic

Born in Ménilmontant, a working-class neighborhood in Paris, in 1949, Perse was the third of 11 children in a humble family. He dropped out of school as a teenager and went to work painting houses with his father. Looking for independence, he began competing as a jockey and then a cyclist. He met his future wife, Chantal, when she awarded him the winner’s bouquet at a race he won.

After marrying, Gérard and Chantal started a produce business, selling fruits and vegetables at Paris markets. He was 21. Five years later, they acquired a small grocery. Quickly they built a chain of supermarkets, eventually employing more than 1,000 people.

Restoring a Legendary Wine Estate

Perse fell in love with wine while traveling for work, and when he and Chantal sold their company, they decided their next chapter would be making wine. In 1993, Perse bought Château Monbousquet. Four years later, he acquired Château Pavie-Decesse and its 17 acres of vines from the Valette family for $4 million. A year later, the Valettes also sold him Château Pavie, for $30.8 million. Pavie had been named Premier Grand Cru Classé B in the first St.-Emilion classification in the 1950s, but had suffered in the 1980s as investment shrank.

One of Perse’s first steps at Pavie was to build a new cellar. Completed in time for the 1999 vintage, the new cellar included a larger number of small wooden vats (replacing larger concrete vats) to allow vinification of individual parcels. He would replace that with an even newer winery in 2012, after getting to know the property’s needs better.

Perse also shifted to organic viticulture while undertaking a large replanting program. When he purchased the estate, 32,000 vines were missing amid the parcels, the equivalent of more than 12 acres, or 15 percent of the entire vineyard. As he replanted, he shifted which grape varieties were planted in which parcels and changed vineyard orientation and spacing.

[article-img-container][src=2025-07/adv_pavie053122_1600.jpg] [credit= (Courtesy Vignobles Perse) ] [alt= Château Pavie’s cellar and vineyards in St.-Èmilion.][end: article-img-container]

The work of Perse and his team showed in the wines, which grew more polished and powerful, yet retained a signature character of the estate. Perse’s style moderated over the years, aiming to emphasize the purity of the fruit as well as the vibrance and character imparted by the soils. In 2012, Pavie was elevated to Premier Grand Cru Classé A, the highest ranking in the classification.

Outside the winery, Perse helped lead a new wave of wine tourism in St.-Emilion, as Bordeaux became more welcoming to visiting wine lovers. With the help of Chantal, their daughter Angélique, and son-in-law Henrique Da Costa, he developed Perse Latitudes, a hospitality company that included the luxurious Hôtel de Pavie (formerly Hostellerie de Plaisance) in St-Emilion and its restaurant, La Table de Pavie, which earned two Michelin stars. In 2017, they purchased L’Envers du Décor, a bistro in the heart of the town that has long served as a beloved hangout for local winemakers.

Perse is survived by his wife, daughter, son-in-law and two grandchildren.

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