Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie are throwing the winery out with the bath water.
Brangelina’s Château Miraval in the south of France is up for sale following Jolie’s filing for divorce on September 19, according to unnamed sources at Us Weekly. The couple produced wine for three years with a special Jolie-Pitt designation on the bottle that meant more to certain segments of the United States market than any AVA, DOC or AOC could. Alas, Miraval wines from here on out will be produced without a celebrity endorsement.
The couple first leased Miraval in 2008. By 2013, they decided to put those grapes to use and partnered with the well-respected Perrin winemaking family to make a 2012 Miraval Rosé. Pitt and Jolie were married in 2014 on the $60 million, 1,200-acre plot of land amidst the vines and olive trees.
Publications — including VinePair — questioned the fate of the estate as soon as the divorce news broke. Miraval is located in Correns, an 800-person village in Provence. Miraval, like all of the wineries in Correns, is 100-percent organic (although not certified). In addition to the rosé, they make two whites and a red. But Miraval is different in one major way: It’s no stranger to celebrity attention. Sting, the Cranberries and Pink Floyd have all used the recording studio located in the Château.
Who it will go to next is up in the air. It could have gone to University of Missouri journalism school drop out Brad Pitt. Despite his Hollywood looks, there were rumors that he had a stronger love of the winery, whereas Jolie, whose name is first in the celebrity designation, wanted to sell it.
But in wine, there is truth — in this case, some truth that took people quite a while to realize. The New York Post reported in September that Miraval has been on the market for months now, a quite premonition of what was to come. Now you can own Château Miraval yourself, if you can afford it that is. In Vino Veritas indeed.
