The Lady of Glenelly
“Army wives never complain.” - Madame May-Elaine de Lencquesaing
I had the distinct honour of meeting the Lady of Glenelly on a Friday afternoon, a week before lockdown began. She had intended to travel back to France the coming week, but at the last minute, due to various travel restrictions being imposed at the time, decided to stay. 10 weeks later, she’s still here, having celebrated her 95th birthday in the midst of a pandemic, nothing new in the context of her life. I met her in the beautiful old farm house at Glenelly, amongst the trappings of a glamorous life. The paintings and souvenirs collected from all over the world paint a colourful picture, filled with eclectic people and places. She introduces her great-grandfathers, grandmothers, aunts and uncles as they look down at us from the walls. Commenting: “In this room you have 7 generations - FUNNY.” She is animated, witty and sage, as she tells her story.
Spring
Lady May started her life on a wine farm 55km north of Bordeaux (the same distance between Cape Town and Stellenbosch), Château Pichon Longueville Comtesse de Lalande in Pauillac, a second growth situated amongst the likes of Château Latour, Château Mouton de Rothschild and Château Lafite. One of three children, her and her cousins roamed the vineyards from an early age and learnt about the vines without any formal instruction. During World War Two (Lady May 15 years old), Pichon and Château Palmer were used as German headquarters for five long years. The Germans took their horses, and the cows picked up the slack, being milked in the morning and evening and working the fields in between. There was no electricity, no money and “we were starving of course”. Lady May and her cousins (there were 9 children in the house between 5 and 17 years of age), were taught French, Latin and Physics by their grandfather, Mathematics and History by a general who was staying with them at the time, and English and Spanish by her mother. Her life seems to be divided into these very distinct seasons, her ‘Spring’ defined by a love and respect of family, something she seems to have instilled in her own four children, their 10 grandchildren and the resulting 14 (soon to be 15) great grandchildren. Nicolas, her grandson is set to takeover management of Glenelly and sits by her side, his daughters, like Lady May growing up on the farm amongst the vines.
Summer & Autumn
Lady May married a French Officer, Hervé Lencquesaing, and entered another season of her life, ‘Summer’ she’d say. She spent her ‘Summer’ as an army wife for 30 years, had 4 children and moved 15 times. They lived through the occupation of France during World War Two, its liberation, the Indochina war and the Algerian war. But army wives never complain. Lady May fell in love with America while they were stationed there and she studied to become a nurse, with two babies at home. At the age of 53, in 1978, she was called back to Pichon, to take over the reigns as dictated by the family. She went back to university to study viticulture, and was set the arduous task of bringing the failing Château back to its former glory. This was no small task to achieve in the ‘Autumn’ of one’s life. With no money, no heating in the house, no proper cellars and no proper vats they set to work for 8hrs, three times a day. She stayed with her workers day and night, feeding them coffee or wine as the hour prescribed. The resulting 1979 vintage is said to be spectacular.
Winter
As the President of the IWSC (International Wine and Spirits Competition), Lady May became intrigued by South Africa. She established a trophy for the Best Blended Wine in the World, a beautiful glass cup that came with an invitation to visit Pichon during picking time. The South Africans cleaned up, with the likes of the Steytlers, Meerlust, Vergelegen and Kanonkop taking home the trophy more than once. She quickly established friendships with these winemakers, and started learning about winemaking in South Africa. In 1988, she came to South Africa to taste, gaining a great respect for the wine, but still deemed it crazy to try and invest here. During this time she became great friends with Dr. Anton Rupert, who was to succeed her as President of the IWSC, it was at his urging, when apartheid was abolished, that she started to seriously consider investing in South Africa. Initially, she had merely thought to purchase a small farm, 15ha at most to live out her experiment, but the more she saw of South Africa, the more things she started to realise: 1. A farm with established vines was not only expensive. 2. But most probably virus invested. 3. Usually not the right varietals. 4. And not planted in the French way, the Bordeaux way, HER way. And so at the age of 78, in 2003 she purchased Glenelly, a fruit farm of 120 ha in Stellenbosch, in her own words: “Totally Crazy.” In Glenelly she found water, terroir, and Heinrich Louw, their fruit farmer turned viticulturist and set out to make wine in the French tradition of complexity, balance, elegance and ageability - something the line-up of vintages we have on offer demonstrates beautifully.
A Collector’s Spirit
It is my belief that it is her collector’s spirit that drove her on. Lady May is a grand collector of glass, a fascination that started in 1982 in Bath when she was first introduced by a charming old gentleman in an antiques store. She went on to put together incredible collections of both antique and modern glass sculpture - some of which you’re able to view at Glenelly today. She befriended major sculptors such as Dale Chihuly (some of his work graces the V&A Museum in London today) and through him was introduced to a number of notable glass artists of our time. When asked where this fascination came from she says her grandfather was also an avid antiques collector, always teaching her to respect history and art, and the story of objects. This respect is easily extrapolated to fine wine, the story of it, the history, the pedigree. When I ask her what SHE thinks the spirit of a collector is, she says: “humility, you never know everything, you’re always curious, always looking for more, always delighting in the story of a thing.” And by possessing it, somehow sharing in its history, its craftsmanship, its story.
Milestones
Given what I’ve already told you, the milestones would seem obvious, but with a LADY, there’s always so much more. When I asked her what SHE thought the three major milestones in her life were she said: A 3-day tasting of Pichon she hosted in San Francisco. Yes. Three days, two sessions per day with 10 vintages per session. The sheer range of wines (60 vintages), and the quality of it, cements Pichon as historic Bordeaux. The second. In 2011 the mayor of Bordeaux awarded her the Legion of Honour, established by Napoleon and back in the day, seldomly awarded a woman. The third. In 2017 she was awarded a lifetime achievement award by Tim Atkin in London from the IWSC, “to the old lady” she says.
Being a Woman
When I ask her, as I inevitably do about the struggles of her life, she says we won’t speak of such things, as we’d need many nights. She says she prefers remembering how she got out of most of it, instead of how it happened. But then she says: “Being a woman. We have to talk about that. It was very difficult.” Modern women, younger women would just use a keyword #MeToo, but back in the day, in Bordeaux, as a woman charged with bringing a Château back to life, in a man’s world, I can only imagine. “They wanted me to FAIL.” For a woman who has lived four lives, she’s learnt something about survival. She found people she could trust, humble people, and built her foundation on them. And then she said this, something, that on THAT day I didn’t yet understand as much as I do right now, however many days into lockdown:
“There’s always a miracle coming. You just have to wait long enough. Some people get discouraged, but you just have to WAIT.”
