The château and its organic vineyards are located in Juillac/Gironde, 25 km south-east of St. Emilion on the south bank of the Dordogne River.
The property borders on the remnants of a Roman road that crossed the Dordogne River from Montcaret on the north bank and continuing to Bordeaux, 60 km west of Juillac. In the first century, the Romans were the first to plant grape vines in the area. In the last millennium Bordeaux grew to be the most famous wine growing region in the world.
In 1590 the château was constructed as a small fortress during the reign of King Henry IV of France (1589-1610).
Freddy and Maïté Pantarotto became owners of La Roberterie in 1989. They wrote its story until 2015, when Artur & Linda Zimmer purchased the property. They committed to restore the château that had deteriorated over many decades and to expand and modernize the winery. Also, the vineyards were to be improved to optimum conditions. These projects were completed by late 2018.
There is now a beautifully restored château and a state-of-the-art winery that produces award-winning wines of the highest achievable quality from the organically grown grapes from one of the best terroirs in the area.
La Roberterie is managed by a well-balanced team that brings together very different but complementary backgrounds and personalities. All epicureans at heart, its members gather around their love of their work, but also around their common passions.
Born on the western edge of the Black Forest, Artur grew up in one of the foremost wine growing areas in Germany. From his family’s vineyards he could see the Vosges mountains and the steeple of the Strasbourg Cathedral in neighboring Alsace, the famous French wine growing area across the Rhine River.
From his childhood he did most of the tasks related to wine production, including vine pruning, cultivating (horse-drawn), hand spraying, hand harvesting, barrel cleaning and grape pressing. And he curiously observed and helped his grandfather making wine in the cellar.
During high school Art studied French and spent many months as an exchange student and visitor in France, developing a deep liking of the country and its people. After high school he studied chemical engineering in Berlin. As a young engineer he first focused on fermentation and distillation in the beverage alcohol industry. Later, after having been transferred to the USA, he shifted toward concentration and drying of a wide range of food products with emphasis on the dairy and grape juice industries.
In 1994 Art started his own company together with his wife, Linda. They enjoyed almost 25 years of successful entrepreneurship and successively sold their engineering business interests, retiring from it at the end of 2018.
Art always dreamt of spending more time in France. This dream came true in 2015 with the acquisition of Château La Roberterie. The property was in a great location, had top quality terroir and well-managed vineyards. The chateau and the winery were dilapidated, yet of attractive potential.
Mustering all of their talents in the areas of engineering, construction, project execution, and business management Art and Linda turned Château La Roberterie into a jewel of a property in only three years.
Born in Chicago, Illinois. Linda attended French classes in high school but never imagined she would ever visit France, not to speak of owning a vineyard, winery and a chateau. She has advanced degrees in accounting and business management. That education along with many years of experience fully equipped Linda to manage all the administrative and financial functions. She works with Maïté in executing these tasks. Along with her husband, she was the founder and owner of three successful prior businesses, now followed by the fourth – Château la Roberterie.
Linda would much rather be almost anywhere but in an office. A lover of the outdoors, she spends time enjoying the beautiful countryside of the Juillac area. You may find her coasting along on her bicycle around and through the vineyards or puttering in the gardens. And when needed, she participates in the work in the vineyards and in the winery.
Her enjoyment of wine is ever increasing as she becomes more knowledgeable about the growing and processing of the grapes. Linda is studying French and trains in French cooking and feels that she has much left to learn. But enjoying the fruits of the vine make it all worthwhile to her.
Simon possesses a unique combination of business (MBA), engineering (BSEE) and non-profit experience in five countries and speaks English, Spanish and German (BA German) fluently. One of his major accomplishments, of which he is very proud, was co-founding an international NGO dedicated to providing water, sanitation and hygiene education to rural communities in Colombia. This organization helped over 10,000 people under his guidance and now continues to blossom as part of a large international NGO.
Besides a full-time job in the solar industry, Simón supports La Roberterie by consulting on marketing initiatives, social media presence, and graphic design. Additionally, he helps manage La Roberterie’s business operations in the United States. Lastly, he is a founder and co-owner of Chateau 1590 LLC, which is the importing and distributing entity for Château La Roberterie wines in the United States.
The son of La Roberterie’s former tenant farmers, Freddy has always lived at La Roberterie. He knows its history, its topography, its secrets, and has a very special attachment to it. After growing up in this family domain, he pursued a new field and graduated as a cabinetmaker in 1978. It is from this experience that he more fully developed his mechanical skills and ingenuity. Freddy always fixes equipment and has a talent for adapting devices and equipment to a need.
But, being in love with nature and the outdoors, he decided to revert back to his roots in viticulture. He returned to La Roberterie, first as a tenant farmer, and then as the owner in 1989, after marrying Maïté. Together, they decided to disengage from the local cooperative cellar and created their own winery. Very sociable and committed, Freddy joined the region’s community life as a rugby player for 15 years, and then continued to coach the youth teams. He was also elected for 8 years to the Bordeaux and Bordeaux Supérieur Wine Syndicate.
After the sale of the domain in 2015, he continued on and optimized the viticulture work. He also participated in the management of the cellar renovation projects in order to perfect the cellar tasks down to the last detail. As Technical Manager of La Roberterie, Freddy remains at the head of the wine growing and wine making operations.
As a daughter of a vintner in the AOC Montagne Saint-Emilion, Maïté grew up with the rhythm of successive growing and harvest seasons on her father’s estate in the 1980s. From the vineyard to the cellar, Maïté held all positions, including administrative and commercial duties. In 1989, she and Freddy wrote a new personal and professional story when they got married and became owners of La Roberterie.
She also has been involved in community projects, as a local councilor in Juillac for 14 years. This was followed by being a director for an additional 14 years. Currently, she serves on the administrative board of the local Crédit Agricole bank branch since 2006.
In 2015, when the estate was sold, she became Administrative Manager of La Roberterie. She continues to play an important role in the domain’s revitalization, making sure that renovations and commercial operations run smoothly. She also participates in the promotion and marketing aspects of the winery and is the liaison to for the local community. When needed, she takes part in the vineyard work, conducts tastings, and brings her experience and ideas to each new initiative at Château La Roberterie.
Caroline is the daughter of a wine merchant in the Loire Valley. She has always known the wine business. So she naturally turned to this field and she graduated with dual degrees in agricultural engineering (Angers) and an oenology (Bordeaux).
From her first professional experiences, she diversified her skills by working in Châteaux (Palmer, Mouton-Rothschild), cooperative cellars (Duras), and wine merchants (Sovex-Woltner). There were always varied missions: wine production, business management, quality assurance, consulting, and training.
Caroline knows perfectly well the challenges of operating a wine estate, having managed the 34 ha Château des Mille Anges in Cadillac for six years. Since 2008 she is the owner of a small Grand Cru domain in Saint-Emilion.
In 2015 she joined the «Oenocentres» of Soussac and uses this very valuable experience to consult on some thirty properties. She complements the La Roberterie team as a consultant since 2017. Arriving during the winery’s renovation, her assistance was crucial in selecting equipment and adapting the winemaking processes, especially for the birth of Primus, the top-of-the-range cuvée, and for the first production of Sauvignon Blanc in 2018.
