The Primum Familie Vini is an organization uniting 12 prestigious, multi-generational, family-owned European wine companies. Each one makes one (or more) of the world’s greatest wines. But what exactly is the purpose of this exclusive collection of some of the world’s top wine companies? In many ways, they’re still trying to figure that out.
The members of the PFV are:
Baron Philippe de Rothschild (Ch. Mouton Rothschild) – Bordeaux, France
Domaine Clarence Dillon (Ch. Haut-Brion) – Bordeaux, France
Egon Müller Scharzhof – Mosel, Germany
Familia Torres – Penedes, Spain
Famille Hugel – Alsace, France
Famille Perrin (Ch. de Beaucastel) – Rhône Valley, France
Maison Joseph Drouhin – Burgundy, France
Marchesi Antinori – Tuscany, Italy
Pol Roger – Champagne, France
Symington Family Estates – Douro and Alentejo, Portugal
Tenuta San Guido (Sassicaia) – Tuscany, Italy
Tempos Vega Sicilia – Ribera del Duero, Spain
“The group was founded in 1992 by my father, Robert Drouhin, and Miguel Torres,” says Veronique Drouhin. “They would occasionally meet up and talk, and one time they said, ‘You know, we have the same values, we share the same issues, and we have some things we can talk about more often than when we just run into each other.’ And they decided maybe it was a good idea to form a little group of friends that shared the same concerns.”
Chief among those concerns at the time, says Drouhin, was succession. “We are always asking, how do we successfully pass on the business to the next generation?”
Drouhin, who was the yearly president of the PFV organization for 2023 (she handed that role over to Charles Symington a few weeks ago), cites the statistic that while 86% of global GDP comes from family-run companies only 16% of them successfully transfer the business from one generation to the next.
Robert Drouhin and Torres quickly decided to invite Piero Antinori to join their group, and then the Rothschilds, and over the next few years the group grew to Drouhin and Torres’ target of 12, a number that seemed appropriate both for its symbolism of a full case in the wine industry, as well as reasonably manageable in terms of coordinating a consensus-driven organization.
Robert Mondavi Winery was a member until they sold to Constellation in 2004. They were replaced in 2018 by Domaine Clarence Dillon, owners of Château Haut-Brion.
“We were eleven for a very long time,” notes Veronique Drouhin. “There has to be 100 percent agreement for a new one, and our first criteria is that it has to be a nice family.”
Veronique Drouhin speaking at the PFV event
The official qualifications for membership in PFV require the wine estate to be wholly owned and controlled by a family that has been in the business for at least three generations. There also seems to be a general understanding that new members, when considered, need to be in a different appellation than existing members. These qualifications are somewhat academic, however, as the group has no plans to expand beyond its existing twelve members.
The entire group of families meets yearly over a few days at one of its members’ estates.
“At some point, maybe six or seven years ago, we started asking ourselves what exactly is the reason this group exists,” says Drouhin. “There’s an enormous amount of history, heritage, and knowledge that all of these families have. If you combine all these elements there is a significant amount of potential.”
In service of that potential, the organization subsequently developed a management committee and a technical committee. The latter quickly became focused on the impacts of climate change and how each estate was adjusting its work in the vineyards and cellar. In periodic virtual meetings, members share their research, ideas, and recommendations with the other estates.
PFV also went on to launch The PFV Prize, a $100,000 grant given to a multi-generational,…
Source : https://www.vinography.com/2024/07/the-flavor-of-family-tasting-the-wines-of-the-primum-familiae-vini
