Did you always want to join the family business? 'We are a very old winemaking family. What's [unusual] is that none of the men of each generation started out as a winemaker - we all did something else. My grandfather, for example, is a doctor in law; I'm a business graduate and had a travel agency in Paris. When I was 30, I came back to the winery because of my passion - not because I was obliged to do so, but because I love wine. I was born above a cellar in the village I now work in. I have wine in my blood. It was an easy transition - I knew I'd come back. I did what I wanted, I was happy. I studied and travelled a lot, and learned to speak eight languages. It opened my eyes and my mind to the people who would drink my wine.'
What do you mean by 'passion'? 'If you are passionate about wine, you have to be passionate about everything that has to do with producing it. It's a beverage, but it's more than that - it's a way to transmit culture. Wine was discovered 7,000 years ago. My passion is to respect this history, and the history of Burgundy, which is 2,000 years old. We are a tiny element of a chain that starts with the roots 10 metres below the ground and ends in the glass you're drinking from. All the elements that bring pleasure to the person drinking it need each other - that's why it's a chain. The winemaker doesn't exist, but a human has to be there to give the chain its strength.'
Is China an important market for you? 'I began selling wine to mainland China 20 years ago but stopped five years ago. The new consumers in China - not all of them, but some of them - were just showing off. They would buy the most expensive bottle, then mix it with ice, or maybe blend two wines together, just so they could say they had money and could afford to do so. This kind of client is not my client. Wine is not a product like a computer; it's more alive. It's like one of my daughters: I want to be sure the guy she marries is a nice one.'
How open are you to matching wine with a foreign cuisine? 'For me, there's no wine without food and no food without wine. It's like a man and a woman. They have been made to go together. Wine can only match a cuisine when the cuisine is authentic. My wife is half French, half Vietnamese. At home, she cooks fantastic Chinese cuisine. When I was young, I used to match her food with a ros?. Not a very good one. One day I went to Thailand, where the food is very spicy - good but spicy. I was invited to a private house and the man served 1976 La Tache, a 1961 Latour and a 1955 Petrus, and it was perfect. So, I said to myself, 'Why serve bad wine?' When I went home, I tried to match [my wife's cooking] with grand cru burgundy from my winery. It was fantastic! I had learned that any cuisine can be matched with wine, but only when you try. We produce a white wine that is perfect with shrimp and pineapple. It's made in Burgundy, where there's neither pineapple nor shrimp. But it is a perfect match. Why? I don't know.'
Is there a vintage you keep for your own use? 'No. I like to share. For some appellations, we sometimes produce only one barrel, which makes 300 bottles. I couldn't be selfish and keep it to myself. Sometimes I don't have any bottles left in my cellar. [There is a collector] here in Hong Kong who has more old bottles of my wine than there are in my private cellar. That's crazy! He bought my wine from all over the planet. I'm happy that, here in Hong Kong, I can drink Ponsot wine that I don't have.'