Ch. Montrose owner ‘absolutely not dead’

Confusion briefly reigned at the weekend after one of France’s leading businessmen and owner of Château Montrose, Martin Bouygues, was erroneously pronounced dead.

Martin Bouygues

Agence France Presse announced on Saturday that Bouygues had died, citing the mayor of a town in the Orne where the businessman has a home.

As well as owning the second growth Bordeaux estate with his brother Olivier as part of a real estate business, Bouygues is the head of a media empire that also owns France’s biggest broadcaster TF1.

“He is absolutely not dead,” the head of TF1’s communications department told Reuters as the rumours of Bouygues’ demise were quickly snuffed.

“The Bouygues Group formally denies the death of its CEO Martin Bouygues and regrets that such a rumour could have spread.”

AFP has since apologised for the confusion and ordered an investigation into how the report was issued.

According to RFI however, acting on a tip-off a journalist from the agency phoned Michel Julien, mayor of the town of Saint-Denis-sur-Sarthon, and asked if “monsieur Martin” had died.

Julien replied that he had, except that the man in question was another “monsieur Martin” who had indeed died that morning. Too late though, the agency issued a despatch announcing the news.

“Obviously we should have then waited for confirmation from the Bouygues group,” said AFP‘s global news director Michèle Léridon.

Organisers of Bordeaux’s Fête de la Fleur will be relieved, Montrose is set to be the host for this year’s festival on 18 June. The festival is also meant to be an opportunity for the Bouygues to show off the new barrel room and celebrate the property’s 200^th anniversary.

Bouygues reportedly set out to buy Montrose after tasting a bottle of the 1989. In 2006 he and his brother bought the Saint-Estèphe property and another, Tronquoy Lalande. In 2010 they persuaded their neighbours, Phélan Ségur, to sell them 22 hectares for €900,000 a hectare.