Uniting his family’s 200-year tradition of winemaking with the latest in technological advances, Pascal Chatonnet is manager and owner of several family vineyards in Lalande Pomerol (La Sergue, Haut-Chaigneau) and St. Émilion (L’Archange).

Chatonnet earned his undergraduate degree at the University of Bordeaux II’s Institute of Oenology and later received a Doctorate in Medical and Biological Sciences with a concentration in Oenology-Ampelography.

Chatonnet’s university thesis on the effect of oak on wine quality won awards such as the First International Award of the Amorim Academy (Lisbon, 1991) and the International Giuseppe Morsiani Award (Verona, Italy, 1996). This quickly gained him recognition as a specialist in the making and barrel-aging of fine wines. In 1989 he formed an independent winemaking consulting firm, Pascal Chatonnet Conseil.

In 1992, Chatonnet created Laboratoire EXCELL with his companion Ms Dominique Labadie, a facility where they exercise another area of expertise: the development of oenological quality control measures, in particular the study of cork quality and innovative findings related to the prevention of TCA (trichloranisole) contamination. EXCELL laboratory has become a world expert for fine analysis of wines and all the materials in direct or non-direct contact with them.

Chatonnet joined forces in 1998 with Michel Rolland to create MR & PC Conseils, a winemaking consultancy firm with international clients.