Pieds-Noirs and winemaking in Médoc

If you love French wine and the Pieds-Noirs as I do, you may enjoy this lovely review of Adrien Tramier's Château Saint Saturnin Cru Bourgeois wine from Jancis Robinson.com. I quote Tramier's biographical information below:

Tramier landed in Marseille from Algeria in 1964 and went initially to study in Montpellier, where his sister lived. He came to Bordeaux to look at a possible little wine property in the far east of the Entre-Deux-Mers region that a fellow pied noir, a lawyer, had found for him but threw dice for it with another potential buyer and lost. Further pied noir contacts found him three hectares of vines in Begadan (he now has 37 around this village and the next), which he worked half and half with the previous owner to begin with. By 1975 he had established his very particular way of working but, he added wistfully, 'I'll never be integrated here. I'd like to return to Algeria one day, and I wouldn't view it through the eyes of today but with all my childhood memories. I'm ill at ease here.'


Next time I have the privilege of staying in Maubuisson, I plan to call it a research trip and trek up to the town of Bégadan in Haut-Médoc to meet Mr. Tramier and hopefully do some wine tasting.