Gaspard de Sauveterre shivered as he stepped out of a side entrance to his château. While the late September days were still warm, he could feel autumn approaching. The 75-year-old owner of Château de Vallois, a famous wine-producing estate in the Bordeaux region of France, felt a familiar thrill. This was the season he and his team had worked toward the whole year; any day now the bell for the harvest, the famous vendanges, would ring. He quickened his pace down the long, well-kept alley through the wrought-iron gates to start his ritual morning walk through the vineyards.
A version of this article appeared in the January–February 2011 issue of Harvard Business Review.
