Forging a new path
A fiercely independent and audacious man, Louis Gaspard d’Estournel would readily forego convention for the sake of progress.
This proved especially true of his sales practices; rather than depending on Bordeaux’s traditional network of negociants, he chose to personally dispatch his wines to remote places, signing each bottle as a symbol of his emancipation from the system.
In 1838, the newspaper Le Producteur reported, “The arrival of a large shipment of wine sent directly to India by the wealthy owner of a vineyard has caused a stir.”