Mentioning the name Carla Bruni at the Hoxton Hotel in Paris had a magical effect. The previously cool receptionists all jumped to attention and quickly pointed me upstairs; a sign of what an important figure Bruni is in France.
Former model, singer, former First Lady of France and to that remarkable resume we can add winemaker, or at least wine impresario.
In 2020 Carla Bruni and her husband, former French president Nicolas Sarkozy, bought Château d’Estoublon in Provence with Jean-Guillaume Prats, previously of Bordeaux’s Cos d’Estournel, and businessman Stéphane Courbit, the 56th richest man in France.
I was ushered into a room where Bruni sat wearing an olive green jumpsuit, like a chic paratrooper, while Prats was the very definition of the ‘arrogant Bordelais’ – his words not mine – in a pink monogrammed shirt.
Bruni and her husband Nicolas Sarkozy, who Prats referred to as ‘the president’, first visited the estate in 2021 during the Covid pandemic and fell in love with it.
‘The property is just incredible. There’s a vibration to the whole place,’ said Bruni.
At the same time they met Jean-Guillaume Prats through Courbit, a mutual friend, and the rest is history: ‘I don’t believe in coincidence. It was good timing,’ she said.
It was ‘a bold move,’ she added, ‘buying and selling wine at a time when the whole economy was destroyed.’
Provence was a natural fit for Bruni: ‘I feel very close to the south of France. My parents bought a house in 1959 in the Côte d’Azur. At the time it was a 14 hour drive from Torino [Turin],’ she said.
Château d’Estoublon is located in the hills next to renowned estate Domaine de Trevallon. Historically the wines didn’t have the reputation of this illustrious neighbour, but it was famous for the quality of its olive oil.
This isn’t just a beautiful boutique wine estate, however. ‘Our ambition is to be the biggest and best, with 2.5 million bottles of our own production. We are about half of that today’, said Prats.
There are 350ha in total, meaning they have the second largest vineyard holdings in Provence after Pernod Ricard, according to Prats.
They launched Roseblood rosé with the 2021 vintage, which was made largely from sourced wine. Since then they have been on a spending spree, acquiring Domaine de Cantarelle in Coteaux Varois en Provence for the rosé, and Villa Beaulieu in Coteaux d’Aix en Provence which produces the premium wines under the 1489 label and the Roseblood blanc. This is in addition to a range of estate wines labelled under Château d’Estoublon.
The winemaker, Victor Joyeux, who was also at the interview, was formerly winemaker at Cloudy Bay in New Zealand. I was keen to know just how closely Bruni works with Joyeux. I pictured her and ‘the president’ stomping grapes together.
‘We are very close to each other, each step of the process. I feel like Victor’s pupil,’ she said. ‘Some famous people involved in wine are simply selling their image, which I understand because I have been doing so for perfume and jewellery and dresses all my life. I don’t know if they are getting close to wine production.’
Bruni compared what she does at Château d’Estoublon with Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie at Miraval. ‘Did they check on the Miraval production? I have no idea. I would ask them if I saw them. I saw her at Cannes but it was such a big dinner,’ she laughed.
Bruni is learning as she goes along, just as she did with music: ‘You can feel it when I make songs, it’s always four notes because I am an auto-didact. Some jobs are auto-didact, some not, like a dentist or doctor,’ she joked.
Prats added: ‘She brings an artistic and creative aspect. Four years ago we started with a white piece of paper. Victor was not here. We didn’t have a bottle or a label. She is instrumental in the DNA of the brand.’
The Bruni-Sarkozy name clearly opens doors, but it’s not without its drawbacks. Last year Bruni was charged with witness tampering, while Sarkozy was given a suspended sentence in 2023 for corruption and trying to bribe a judge.
She batted it away when I asked whether these charges had affected the Roseblood project: ‘It doesn’t impact our work. My husband and I work every day. It has had no impact on sales.’
Prats added: ‘On the contrary, we started with a white piece of paper and the wine market upside down. Today we are now one of the substantial players in Provence.’
Bruni doesn’t think the pink bubble might burst at any point. ‘Rosé is a feminine wine, something very light you can have at lunch and feel okay and still work in the afternoon.’
At only 12.5% abv, the wine has a freshness about it which Joyeux puts down to the high altitude, at 350m-500m above sea level.
There’s also a zero alcohol offering, made largely from Muscat grapes which are chilled, filtered and carbonated. Prats said that they were not impressed with the quality of any dealcoholized wines so decided to go down this route.
I asked whether they might produce sparkling wine and everybody laughed and went quiet, so watch this space.
Looking to the future, Bruni said that their daughter Giulia is ‘completely in love with Château d’Estoublon. I am sure she would love to work for us’. There are also four other Sarkozy children.
Bruni is good company, passing around sandwiches and asking about my family and where I live. ‘I am crazy about the English countryside,’ she said. She was also intrigued that before our meeting I‘d had lunch at a British brasserie called L’Entente. ‘But what is British food?’ she asked.
They make a good team, Bruni with her big ideas and Prats the practical one making them a reality. After an hour Bruni apologised, she had a terrible toothache since the Cannes Film Festival and had to go to the dentist, ‘not an autodidact one.’
