After a childhood spent in the orange groves of South Morocco, Gildas d’Ollone went to Paris to study commerce, whilst always spending a lot of time on his great passion, music. He was a singer at the Opera de Paris in Carmen, Tosca and Boris Goudounov and he studied the flute at the Conservatoire de Versailles. At the time it seemed likely that he would pursue a musical career like his grandfather, who was a composer. However he met Martin Bamford of Château Loudenne who communicated his love of wine to Gildas.


Gildas then worked at Château Loudenne for a number of years. On the death of her husband in 1990 his aunt, May-Eliane de Lencquesaing, a formidable woman of extraordinary energy and zest, asked him to join her at Pichon Longueville Comtesse de Lalande. She had taken over the stewardship of the château in 1978 and has made it into one of the most sought after wines in the world ; a wine of exceptional quality and one which has the rich, unctuous quality which gives it wild appeal.