“Fortune favours the bold.” As a kid, I loved these old sayings. Growing up, I’m still amazed at how true they ring. After we had lunch among the olive trees, one of our customers told us, clearly tired of listening to us complaining about how we had so many plans but no money to make them come true with: “And what would you do with ten million euros?” Good question. Get started with the hillside that I’ve been dreaming of for ten years and that I’ve patiently reconstituted, plot by plot, all the while knowing I would never be able to afford to put it back into cultivation. The bank? Impossible. A financial backer? At the cost of our freedom. And what if we asked our customers? We ponder the idea, then give up, think about it again before backtracking at the thought of all the administrative difficulties and potential capital gains we would have to pay before even selling anything. Then during another lunch a name popped up, then another, some great advice, some letters, some ideas, a possibility, and at the end of 2011, a hundred customers became shareholders of the Clos des Fées. More than money, which would never be a problem anymore, our partners give us time, the kind of time that makes you both speed up and slow down. A new dynamic starts.
2012
