The Team

A closely-knit team…

During the 1980s, Philippe Castéja took over the management of TrotteVieille. He formed a team of six at the château – three in the offices and three on the production side.

Christophe Dussutour, who has been Estate Manager since 1999, works in close partnership on a daily basis with cellarmaster Valério Mortari, who arrived in 2018. Elena Nguyen joined the team in 2023 to develop wine tourism at the Château.

Thierry Ruban, who joined the estate in 1994, is Administration Manager, and he is assisted by Marie Leuret and Béatrice Frappé, who arrived in 2018.

…partnered
by three renowned
œnologists

Since 2011, in order to perfect its wines, the Castéja family has called on the services of Thomas Duclos, an œnologist and shareholder in Oenoteam, a wine consultancy and analysis laboratory. Thomas works closely with the teams and supports Château TrotteVieille in its evolution.

For the last fifteen years, the team has also called on the services of Valérie Lavigne, a lecturer and researcher at Bordeaux’s Faculty of Œnology and a teacher at Bordeaux’s CIVB. For about 5 years now, the château has also been advised by Axel Marchal, a lecturer at the Institut des Sciences et de la Vigne.