Gérard Perse, owner of Chx Pavie, Pavie-Decesse and Monbousquet in St-Emilion and producer of some of Bordeaux's most controversial wines, announced yesterday that his purchase of Pomerol's Ch Petit Village from the insurance company AXA was to be adjourned for a year.
(Well, the word used in the French press release was not adjourn but proroger which I'm ashamed to admit meant nothing to me until I looked it up in my Larousse.)
His proposed acquisition, at an extraordinarly high price per hectare even by Bordeaux standards, was highly touted at the end of March, just in time for the en primeur tastings of the 2001s (as reported in wine news on 13 April).
Perse's tail does not seem to be wagging quite so hard nowadays however. The reasons given for the adjournment, to which AXA have agreed apparently, are the conjunction of the current economic situation and the morosité (another great French word, for gloominess this time) of the primeur market throughout Bordeaux.
I feel very sorry for the Petit Village team.
