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Symington Family Estates winemaker appointed PFV president

03 July 2024 By Louis Thomas

Symington Family Estates’ Charles Symington has been named as the next president of Primum Familiae Vini (PFV), an association of 12 leading winemaking families.

The PFV, which consists of a dozen of the most prestigious wine dynasties, including Antinori, Familia Torres and the Rothschilds, appoints one of its members as president of the association each year.

Last year, it was announced that Véronique Drouhin of Maison Joseph Drouhin, which has estates in Burgundy and Oregon, had been appointed to the role, representing PFV at various wine events across the globe.

Now it has been revealed that Drouhin will be succeeded by Symington, head winemaker of Port colossus Symington Family Estates.

Symington said that he was “extremely honoured” to be appointed to the role, and argued that all the members of PFV share “the same values”: “The culture of excellence, love and respect for the earth and the terroir, and the powerful desire to remain family-run, independent businesses and transmit the heritage of our ancestors to the next generation.”

“These are particularly exciting times at PFV,” he continued. “The last 12 months have been fruitful under Véronique Drouhin’s leadership, with major advances on climate change issues within the technical committee.”

Symington also mentioned that one of his key focuses over the next year will be the topic of AI, and its role in the wine world – something that was the focus of last month’s db conference.

“Among initiatives that I would like to draw, I will very shortly be proposing that the technical committee focuses on the evaluation of Artificial Intelligence in viticulture and winemaking, a subject of the future that will enable the new generations within the 12 families to contribute their knowledge and share it with our entire group.”

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