Corinne Mentzelopoulos-Petit (born 6 July 1953) is a French-

Greek Greek may refer to: Greece Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe: *Greeks, an ethnic group. *Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family. **Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor ...

businesswoman who owns and runs the prestigious

Bordeaux wine Bordeaux wine ( oc, vin de Bordèu, french: vin de Bordeaux) is produced in the Bordeaux region of southwest France, around the city of Bordeaux, on the Garonne River. To the north of the city the Dordogne River joins the Garonne forming the ...

estate,

Château Margaux Château Margaux (), archaically La Mothe de Margaux, is a wine estate of Bordeaux wine, and was one of four wines to achieve ''Premier cru'' (first growth) status in the Bordeaux Classification of 1855. The estate's best wines are very expens ...

. Her wines have often won Bordeaux's Wine of the Vintage. She has been cited as one of the leading women in the wine industry.

Early life

Daughter of the successful

supermarket magnate Andreas Mentzelopoulos, Corinne Mentzelopoulos was born in Boulogne-Billancourt, just west of

Paris Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), ma ...

. After graduating with a degree in classics, she attended the

Institut d'études politiques de Paris , motto_lang = fr , mottoeng = Roots of the Future , type = Public research university''Grande école'' , established = , founder = Émile Boutmy , accreditation ...

(Institute of Political Studies in Paris) where she received her master's degree in 1979.Sébastien Dufil, "Corinne Mentzelopoulos"
EduBourse. Retrieved 29 April 2013. Her only brother died at a young age leaving her the sole heir to the Château Margaux estate left by her father. She was proud of this inheritance and contributed to its further development.

Career

After first working for the

Havas Havas SA is a French multinational advertising and public relations company, headquartered in Paris, France. It operates in more than 100 countries and is one of the largest advertising and communications groups in the world. Havas consists of ...

advertising agency, Mentzelopoulos moved into the family business heading the Primistères holding company which controlled her father's

Félix Potin Félix Potin is the name of a French businessman and his eponymous mass-distribution retail business, founded in the mid-nineteenth century. While the business was bought out and then collapsed in the second half of the twentieth century, the b ...

retail grocery chain. In 1977, her father decided to move into the wine sector and purchased the Château Margaux estate (its earliest history is dated to the 16th century) for 72 million francs ($16 million). On his death in 1980, his widow Laura and daughter Corinne Mentzelopoulos inherited the estate and proceeded to make substantial improvements to the winery. Corinne said of this, "At first we continued my father's work out of pride. We simply didn't have the right to let it fail." In 1990, the Agnelli group became the principal shareholder but in 2003, she gained ownership after buying up the Agnelli shares. Interviewed by Rose Hoare in 2012, she emphasized how she credited her father with her success: "I think he was a genius... His major coup asChâteau Margaux: it had been on sale for two years and he was the only one who realized what that name held." At the time the Mentzelopoulos family bought Château Margaux, the vineyard's reputation had been tarnished by middling vintages, a scandal over labels, and low wine prices. To tackle these issues, Corinne initially worked with general manager Philippe Barré, and consultant

oenologist Oenology (also enology; ) is the science and study of wine and winemaking. Oenology is distinct from viticulture, which is the science of the growing, cultivation, and harvesting of grapes. The English word oenology derives from the Greek word ' ...

Professor Emile Peynaud in managing the vineyard. Her 1983 appointment of Paul Pontallier as the replacement manager to Barré turned out to be an inspired choice. Under his leadership, a new cellar was added, drainage was improved and a second underground cellar was created to accommodate second-year barrels. Paul Pontallie
died
in 2016. By 2012 the British architect

Norman Foster Norman or Normans may refer to: Ethnic and cultural identity * The Normans, a people partly descended from Norse Vikings who settled in the territory of Normandy in France in the 10th and 11th centuries ** People or things connected with the Nor ...

had been commissioned to redesign and expand the cellars as well as to build a new winemaking hall and a library of vintages, the job was completed by 2015 and is open to scheduled visitation. Mentzelopoulos runs the business from an office in Paris. Her business acumen can be judged by her increasing fortune. In 2012, she was deemed to be worth 600 million euro, up from some 300 million in 2004. Mentzelopoulos received the distinction of

Officer of the Legion of Honor The National Order of the Legion of Honour (french: Ordre national de la Légion d'honneur), formerly the Royal Order of the Legion of Honour ('), is the highest French order of merit, both military and civil. Established in 1802 by Napoleon B ...

in 2012.

Personal life

She i
married
to Hubert Leven. Her two youngest children , Alexandra Petit-Mentzelopoulos and Alexis Leven-Mentzelopoulos, joined Château Margaux in 2012 and 2020, and are expected to take over the business one day.

Philanthropy

For the Coffeeland Landmine Victims Trust, a Polus Center Project, in

Nicaragua Nicaragua (; ), officially the Republic of Nicaragua (), is the largest country in Central America, bordered by Honduras to the north, the Caribbean to the east, Costa Rica to the south, and the Pacific Ocean to the west. Managua is the countr ...

, Honduras, Columbia,

Vietnam Vietnam or Viet Nam ( vi, Việt Nam, ), officially the Socialist Republic of Vietnam,., group="n" is a country in Southeast Asia, at the eastern edge of mainland Southeast Asia, with an area of and population of 96 million, making i ...

, Laos and

Cambodia Cambodia (; also Kampuchea ; km, កម្ពុជា, UNGEGN: ), officially the Kingdom of Cambodia, is a country located in the southern portion of the Indochinese Peninsula in Southeast Asia, spanning an area of , bordered by Thailan ...

, a "Fine Wine Dinner" featuring the wines of Château Margaux was organized in which Mentzelopoulos of Château Margaux was the featured guest. Her donation for the cause was the Château Margaux wines from her own cellar in Bordeaux; the wines included Pavillon Blanc 2005, Pavillon Rouge 1995, Château Margaux 1999, Château Margaux 1996, Château Margaux 1989 plus Château d’Yquem 1999 and Dom Pérignon Champagne 1999. The dinner raised $100,000 for the trust.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Mentzelopoulos, Corinne Wine merchants French businesspeople 1953 births Living people French people of Greek descent Sciences Po alumni Officiers of the Légion d'honneur