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Some moves do more than surprise. Arnaud de Laforcade, commercial and financial director of Château Cheval Blanc for seventeen years, will leave the Saint-Émilion grand cru in September to take the helm of Domaine Beauséjour, in Chinon. A decision reported by both Terre de Vins and The Drinks Business on 18 June 2026, and one that says a great deal about the desire the Loire inspires today.
Laforcade himself acknowledges the strangeness of the move. "In 17 years at Château Cheval Blanc, the first resignation I witness is my own," he tells Terre de Vins. One does not leave such an institution without serious reason. His comes down to a single word: risk. "I had the feeling of being settled — I needed to unsettle myself, like uninstalling software, in order to learn again."
It was Ivan Massonnat, owner of Domaine Belargus — already recognised as a benchmark for Anjou whites — who ultimately convinced him to remain in the Loire rather than establish his own structure. Massonnat had been quietly acquiring Beauséjour over five years, with the ambition of making it his flagship for Cabernet Franc, having already made his mark on the Loire white wine scene. According to The Drinks Business, a podcast on which Laforcade was speaking triggered the decisive meeting between the two men.
Chinon as a signal of attractiveness
The choice of appellation is not incidental. Laforcade says he wanted "a red wine domaine, in Chinon — a piece of terroir, of latitude, and of culture around Cabernet Franc," as reported by The Drinks Business. The Loire has long produced some of the finest Cabernet Franc in the world, yet the Chinon appellation has remained in the shadow of its more widely covered neighbours. An appointment of this kind, sitting at the crossroads of the Bordeaux network and Loire ambition, shifts the perspective.
The first wines from the renovated domaine will come from the 2023 vintage, with a planned release in 2027, according to The Drinks Business. The project is therefore being built over time, with no rush.