Why I called it CHAPE — the story behind the name
CHAPE as in SHAPE — to shape. But also CH for Charlotte, A for Antoine, PE for Petrus. My two children, our name. And Louisiane, behind it all.
When I was looking for a name for my house, I wanted it to say something. Not a reference to a château I don’t own. Not a trendy latinism. Just a word that tells what I actually do.
I found CHAPE.
CHAPE as in SHAPE
For those who don’t surf: a shaper is the craftsman who shapes surfboards. He doesn’t mass-produce them. He shapes them — he sculpts them — for a specific rider, a specific style, a specific wave.
Every board is different. Every rider has their curve, rocker, volume distribution. The shaper listens, understands, then cuts into the polystyrene until the board becomes the one we expected.
That’s exactly what I do with wine.
A cuvée for a project, not a catalog
When a restaurant calls me, we talk before we mention bottles. What’s the clientele? What’s on the menu? Which season? What price positioning? Which terroir speaks to them?
Then we look for the wine that answers — sometimes in our existing ranges, sometimes by creating a bespoke cuvée. Maison CHAPE is 8 ranges. But our real specialty is going further when the project calls for it.
I’d rather make one truly great wine than five mediocre ones.
I repeat this phrase often. Because it sums up the trade.
The opposite of a standard merchant
The French word “négociant” bothers me. It implies you buy and resell, that you’re in pure commerce. Me, I create. I select the winegrowers, I take part in the blends, I taste, I test, I redo, I decide.
CHAPE is the opposite of a merchant who only distributes. It’s a wine shaper — someone who loves to shape each cuvée like a surf-shaper shapes each board.
But there’s another layer
CHAPE is also a hidden acronym. And this one — I’ve never told it publicly.
- CH for Charlotte, my daughter
- A for Antoine, my son
- PE for Petrus, our family name
Three letters, two children, one name. The brand literally carries my family in its name. Every bottle leaving the house bears the initials of my children. It’s intimate, and it’s intentional.
And then there’s Louisiane
I founded Maison CHAPE alone on paper. Alone in front of the contracts, alone signing the company registration, alone in negotiations with winegrowers.
But none of this would have existed without Louisiane, my wife. She’s not in the acronym — but she’s everywhere. In every difficult decision made at 11pm, in every pivot, in every doubt. In the patience required for a project like this to build itself without crushing family life.
CHAPE is officially my project. Unofficially, it’s a family adventure. An ambition born of several, carried by a single signature.
To make wines that bring people together. Nobody knows I’m talking about home first.
Now you know.