Like a Fine Wine

In Provence, the historic Château de Beaucastel winery ages gracefully thanks to an update by Studio Mumbai and Studio Méditerranée

- DANA THOMAS

For more than a century, Château de Beaucastel, a vineyard in Provence, has produced some of France's finest Châteauneuf-du-Pape and Côtes du Rhône. During much of that time, owners Jacques and Marguerite Perrin followed the bio-dynamic practices of philosopher Rudolf Steiner, expanding the winery in the 1950s to increase quantity and quality. All the while, the couple lived in the vineyard's historic stone house, Marguerite remaining long after Jacques's death in 1978, and resisting change to it or the architecture. “Once I’m gone,” she told her grandchildren, “you can do as you please.”