Posted on May 24, 2019 by AHA User -
Guest of Honor
Jean-Guilaume Prats
Since March 2018, Jean-Guillaume Prats, 46, is President and CEO of Domaines Barons de Rothschild (Lafite), the Rothschild family company owner of Château Lafite Rothschild (First Grand Cru Classé in Pauillac), Château Duhart-Milon (Grand Cru Classé in Pauillac), Château Rieussec (First Grand Cru Classé in Sauternes), Château L’Évangile (Pomerol) in the Bordeaux region, and Viña Los Vascos (Chile, 1988), Domaine d’Aussières (Languedoc, 1999), Bodegas CARO (Argentina, 1999) and our Estate in Penglai (China). From February 2013, Jean-Guillaume Prats managed Estates & Wines, the Moët Hennessy Wine Division that includes Domain Chandon wineries in California, Brazil, Argentina, China, Australia and India, as well as wines from Cloudy Bay (New Zealand), Cape Mentelle (Margaret River, Australia), Newton (Napa California), Numanthia (Toro, Spain), Terrazas de los Andes, Cheval des Andes (Mendoza, Argentina) and Ao Yun (Shangri-la, China). Before joining Moët-Hennessy, Jean Guillaume managed for 14 years Domaine Reybier SA, comprising Saint-Estèphe Château Cos d’Estournel, Château Marbuzet, The Imperial Estate of Tokaj Hétszölö. Jean-Guillaume Prats was born and raised in Bordeaux, and has a deep connection with the Médoc region : “I was baptized and married at the Saint-Estèphe church and, as a
child, I would fish in the Jalle du Breuil which is the small creek to the boundary of Saint-Estèphe and Pauillac.” He is a Chevalier de l’Ordre National du Mérite. He is also a very keen player of Real Tennis (Jeu de Paume) and was the youngest ever player to play for France, was French amateur champion in 1994, 1995, 1996, 1998 and Junior World champion in 1988. Jean-Guillaume is married to Stéphanie and they have two sons, Jean-Quentin and Baptiste, and three daughters, Marine, Margot and Clarisse.
www.lafite.com
JEAN-GUILLAUME PRATS
President and CEO
Domaines Barons de Rothschild (Lafite)
Posted on November 25, 2015 by AHA User -
Auctioneer
Jamie Ritchie
Worldwide Head, Sotheby’s Wine
Jamie joined Sotheby’s in London in 1990 and moved to New York in 1995. Since then, he has been responsible for starting Sotheby’s wine auctions in New York in 1994 and Hong Kong in 2009. He launched Sotheby’s Wine, a retail store and online wine business, in New York in 2010 and Hong Kong in 2014. Jamie is one of the world’s leading wine auctioneers, selling many lots for world record prices. He frequently travels to taste wines, donate his services to benefit auctions and lead tastings around the world. He is a respected authority on the wine market, frequently appearing on television and is regularly featured in major news publications.
Mr. Ritchie has been a leading Sotheby’s auctioneer for many extraordinary and record breaking auctions such as The Andrew Lloyd Webber Wine Collection (1997, US$6 million and 2010, US$6 million), The Millennium Wine Cellar (1999, US$14 million), Château Mouton Rothschild: Treasures from the Private Cellar of Baroness Philippine (2007, US$2 million), The Classic Cellar from a Great American Collector, auctions I through VI (2009 and 2010 US$34 million), and Lafite Ex Cellars (2010, US$8 million) Mr. Ritchie has sold the following world record lots:
• 3 bottles of Château Lafite 1869 for $232,692 each in October 2010, a world record for a single standard sized bottle at auction.
• A Jeroboam of Château Mouton Rothschild 1945 in February 2007 for US$310,700, the most expensive bottle of wine ever sold at auction.
• 50 cases of Château Mouton Rothschild 1982, which brought US$1.05 million in November 2006 and is the highest value lot of wine ever sold at auction
Posted on November 25, 2015 by AHA User -
Master of Ceremonies
Bill Plante
Bill Plante was a CBS News Correspondent for 52 years prior to his retirement following the 2016 election. He covered the White House for CBS News during the administrations of Ronald Reagan, Bill Clinton, George W. Bush and Barack Obama. From 1989-92, he was State Department correspondent. Plante also served as anchor of the CBS Sunday Night News (June 1988-August 1995). He was part of the CBS News team which received a 1986 Emmy Award for coverage of the Reagan-Gorbachev summit at Reykjavik, Iceland. Plante was a floor reporter at the 1988 and 2008 Democratic and Republican National Conventions. He also covered Reagan’s 1984 reelection campaign and was part of the CBS News team that won an Emmy Award for its coverage. Plante has been based in the CBS News Washington bureau since December 1976. Before his first White House assignment, he covered general and off-year elections, including the national political conventions.
Plante joined CBS News in June 1964 as a New York-based reporter/assignment editor. He served four tours of duty in Vietnam. Plante also covered the civil rights movement in Mississippi and Alabama, including Dr. Martin Luther King’s historic march from Selma to Montgomery.
Plante graduated from Loyola University Chicago with a bachelor’s degree in humanities, and studied political science at Columbia University. He and his wife, Robin Smith, an award-winning independent documentary producer, live in Washington, DC. Plante has five sons.
