Castel at a Crossroads: Governance, Legacy, and Wine
Alain Castel breaks silence on governance tensions shaping one of France’s most influential wine groups.
For decades, discretion has been a defining trait of the Castel family empire. In French viticulture, the group’s name evokes scale, endurance, and a deep-rooted relationship with land and production rather than public debate. That silence has now been broken. After twenty years as managing director of Castel-Vins, Alain Castel has chosen to speak publicly, prompted by what he describes as a profound governance crisis within the wider Castel group.
This is not, he insists, a routine family disagreement or a clash of personalities. It is, in his words, a fundamental rupture of trust between the Castel family and the group’s current chief executive, Gregory Clerc. At stake is not only the balance of power inside one of France’s largest privately held beverage groups, but also the philosophical direction of a company whose wine activities remain central to its identity.
A group built on land and long horizons
Founded and developed by Pierre Castel, the group grew over more than seventy years into a complex organisation spanning vineyards and wine trading, African breweries and soft drinks, and agricultural activities under the Somdia banner. Its 43,000 employees operate across continents, but the group’s cultural DNA has long been anchored in production, patience, and incremental growth.
According to Alain Castel, the current crisis reflects a growing disconnect between that heritage and a governance model he believes has become overly centralised and financially driven. He describes a concentration of mandates and decision-making power around Gregory Clerc that, in his view, leaves no meaningful counterbalance. The concern is not efficiency, but autonomy without accountability.
In the wine world especially, this distinction matters. Viticulture rewards continuity, technical knowledge, and long-term investment rather than short-term optimisation. Castel’s vineyards and négociant activities were built on these principles, and Alain Castel argues that they cannot be sustainably managed through a purely financial lens.
Control without counterweights
Central to the dispute is the structure of the group’s holding companies, notably Investment Beverage Business Management (IBBM) and its controlling entities Cassiopée and DF Holding. Alain Castel maintains that the expected removal of Gregory Clerc from IBBM would logically trigger the gradual loss of his other mandates, including his role as group chief executive. In such circumstances, he suggests, resignation would be the most responsible course.
The heart of the disagreement lies in interpretation of the founder’s intentions. Gregory Clerc has argued that Pierre Castel deliberately adopted an Anglo-Saxon model separating ownership from operational management, entrusting professionals rather than family members with executive power. Alain Castel disputes this reading. While acknowledging the need for professional governance, he points out that many of Clerc’s mandates were originally granted to manage the personal interests of Pierre Castel’s daughter, not to consolidate operational control of the entire group.
The result, he argues, is a situation in which one individual is both decision-maker and supervisor, marginalising family representatives and reshaping governance without consensus.
Performance and perspective
Supporters of the current management point to robust financial results, particularly in Africa, where Castel remains a dominant force in beer and soft drinks. Alain Castel does not deny the group’s overall health but challenges the narrative that recent growth is primarily attributable to current leadership. He sees it instead as the outcome of decades of prior investment and favourable market conditions.
From a wine perspective, the issue is less about headline growth than about strategic coherence. Castel-Vins occupies a unique position in French wine, combining large-scale production with regional identities. Decisions affecting vineyards, sourcing, and long-term brand positioning require intimate knowledge of terroir and markets—knowledge that, Alain Castel argues, risks being diluted if governance becomes detached from operational realities.
A call for renewed balance
The Castel family’s stated objective is not to reverse professionalisation but to restore balance. They advocate a governance model grounded in ethics, transparency, and practical experience, one that respects both the founder’s legacy and the specific demands of wine, agriculture, and brewing. For Alain Castel, this balance is essential if the group is to remain credible in sectors where trust, time, and continuity matter as much as scale.
For French wine professionals, the unfolding situation offers a rare glimpse inside a discreet giant. Beyond personalities and legal structures, it raises broader questions about how family-owned wine groups can evolve without losing their soul—and how governance choices resonate far beyond boardrooms, into vineyards, cellars, and the long rhythms of the land itself.