Raymond Blake discusses wine, life, and the difficulty of separating the two with Olivier Bernard, the candid and famously hospitable proprietor of Domaine de Chevalier and indefatigable promoter of all things Bordeaux. Olivier Bernard stood, folded his arms, and addressed the 90 diners gathered for a Domaine de Chevalier wine dinner in Dublin. Without notes or microphone, he held them rapt for the next 20 minutes as he elaborated on every aspect of his wine philosophy.
Eloquent and cogent, he was by turns serious and witty but always engaging. The dinner was some years ago now, but it is still talked about by those who were there. When it does, much of the credit for its demise will belong to Bernard, as gifted an ambassador as Bordeaux could wish for, never mind being the most generous and welcoming of hosts when at home. The Bernard family , though well established in Bordeaux today, does not have an ancient lineage there. For that we must travel north, to Lille, where the family traded in sugar for four centuries.
During that time, he met his future wife, though it was to be another half-century or more before the family became heavily involved in the wine business. First came neutral spirits, used as the base for numerous other drinks, and then brandy in the s, all produced by the firm of Lucien Bernard, established in and still part of the extended Bernard family enterprise today.
When I was 18, I was already opening a wine shop in Arcachon. One of his duties was as wine steward for the officers. I stayed 18 months, traveling all over. After the navy, university held no appeal, so Bernard worked as an estate agent. Though the previous owner, Claude Ricard, had six children, none of them was interested in succeeding him at Chevalier. To smooth the transition to the new ownership, a crossover period of five years was agreed. We stayed six years together, and he was like my second father.
I very often say that Claude was my second father for the wine, while my father was my first father for the business. Though young, Bernard did not waste time, doing a first green-harvest in and building a cold reception room for the grapes that is still in use today.
