Hervé Berland

Born in Bordeaux, Hervé is a Chevalier dans l’Ordre National du Mérite. He spent a part of his youth in Western Africa. He is a graduate of the High School of Hotel and Catering in Paris. In 1977, he was hired by the Baron Philippe de Rothschild Group in Pauillac as Export Manager. He spent thirty-five years in various director position roles in the wine industry. In 2006, he was appointed by the Supervisory Board, CEO of all the Estates and Member of the Board. In 2012, he joined the Martin Bouygues’s Group as CEO of Château Montrose and Château Tronquoy Lalande, instilling a First Growth culture to the estates. From 2017, and further to the new acquisitions Clos Rougeard, Domaine Rebourseau in Gevrey Chambertin, and La Métairie in Cognac for the Bouygues’s Group, Hervé became CEO of each estate and Managing Director of SCDM Domaines, the holding company controlling all the family estates.

During his 10 years at the helm of these estates, in particular Château Montrose, and conscious that they are unique treasures to preserve, Hervé initiated a Global Environmental Approach, structured around a new philosophy, strategy and objectives :

● minimize the impact of wine making activities on the natural environment

● protect the terroir, its heritage, its richnesses, for the generations to come

● revisit practices and methods to produce better and healthier vines

● anticipates the changes, consumer attitudes and be ahead of the possible evolution of the

international regulations

Reducing carbon footprint of each estate and more natural practices, based on a simple statement : ‘whatever we take from nature, we must give it back to it’.

Among the important achievements realized were: new insulation of all the production facilities, self-independent production of the energy needed, clean and renewable treatment of all effluents to recycle the waters, fully organic viticulture, investment into electric engines, commitment to biodiversity in the vineyards, recycling of all green waste, decrease drastically the quantity of sulfites in the wines, recycle the CO2 coming from fermentation, return to a massale selection for the vines, and research into a new generation of robots to work in the vineyards. Under his supervision, Château Montrose became a laboratory of experiments.

In October 2022, Hervé retired from his operational responsibilities to create his own consulting company in the world of fine wine. He still continues to work for the development of the Bouygues estates but also for the largest US auction firm, Hart Davis Hart, amongst others.