Did you plan to go into the family business? 'Yes. We weren't sure about the timing and I thought I'd stay longer in a different industry, but in the end, I joined the family business in 2002, because that was the right time. We were starting new projects, acquiring new properties. My father [winemaker Jean-Michel Cazes] never put pressure on me, but it became clear that it would be better to join at the beginning of these projects rather than later. I was brought up in this environment. Very early on I developed a taste for wine, maybe a little bit too early! I always enjoyed seeing my father working. What he was doing, to me, was not work, more of a lifestyle. It is a very enjoyable lifestyle. People who buy wine are usually not boring people, they're people you'd like to be around. I'm the fourth generation in the family, but the first one who was brought up with the idea that you could make a living out of the wine business, that the wine business was sustainable. My father joined in 1973 - at the time we were broke. He had worked for 10 years as an engineer for IBM, he had a great life and a promising career. He let go of all that, and my mother wasn't so sure of his choice. She had been living the good life in Paris with a nice apartment and suddenly [her husband] was a broke farmer in Pauillac.'

What was it like to grow up in wine country? 'I grew up in Pauillac and went to boarding school in Bordeaux. I had a very enjoyable youth, I only have good memories. Being in Pauillac, in the countryside, there were quiet times and also times that were active, like harvest time, September to October. It has always been a busy time of the year for us and the atmosphere surrounding the harvest is quite special. When I was a kid, we housed the pickers. That meant a lot of joyful dinners with music, and football games at the end of the day. The smell at harvest is special, when you go through the vineyards, there's a different smell. So there were lots of emotions and sensations.'