Just months after announcing that Château Miraval would reopen its legendary recording studio, Brad Pitt has filed a lawsuit against his ex-wife, Angelina Jolie, over the sale of her shares of the southern French wine estate.
The couple purchased a controlling interest in the winery in 2012 for approximately €25 million and held their wedding there in 2014. When they divorced two years later, Pitt alleges they agreed to a “mutual understanding” that neither would sell their shares without the other’s consent. In 2021—without Pitt's knowledge, he claims—Jolie sold her stake to Tenute del Mondo, a division of the vodka company Stoli Group, owned by Russian businessman Yuri Shefler.
Pitt's goal is to void the sale of the winery, which Pitt takes credit for turning into a "multimillion-dollar international success story and one of the world’s most highly regarded producers of rosé wine,” according to the lawsuit, filed in Los Angeles.
The property includes a house and extensive vineyards, and "the purported sale deprives Pitt of his right to enjoy his private home and to oversee the business he developed from scratch." The celebrity couple’s divorce has been especially hostile, and the legal custody battle over their children continues; Pitt's lawsuit claims that Jolie’s sale was intended to cause "gratuitous harm" to Pitt, and to “undermine his investment.”
Regardless of the background noise, the first shipment of 2021 Château Miraval rosé has already arrived on U.S. shores. According to importer Vineyard Brands, it’s a classic Miraval expression with “signature flavors of fresh currants and roses with lemon zest and minerality” sourced from estate fruit and other premier sites in Côtes de Provence.
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