Château Haut-Brion
Premier Grand Cru Classé
Château la Mission Haut-Brion
Grand Cru Classé

37 avenue Pierre 1er de Serbie - 75008 Paris
Tél. 01 40 73 85 85
Fax 01 40 73 85 89

Paris, on October 1st, 2001

Registered letter (Ack. of receipt)

Monsieur Alain DONNART
Data processing and Translations
14 rue François Lévêque
33300 BORDEAUX

Sir,

I was just informed that you sent again a complaint to one of the leaders of our society, further to the regrettable events which occurred during the 1999 grape harvests. In this mail, I shall try to come up to your concerns.

You did us a good turn by reporting, first to M. Baratié, and to Mister Delmas afterward, the inadmissible behavior of some employees during the harvests. The Clarence Dillon Domain is resolutely opposed to any maltreatment to his staff. All the foremen have received formal instructions about this matter. During the grape harvests, we have always maintained a friendly spirit, which became tradition of our vineyard since generations and centuries. Owing to this spirit, we could have seen, year after year, the coming back of a big part of the vintagers, who were looking for the good-companionship of their former colleagues. This spirit was reflected positively in the answers to the questionnaire which we sent to all the vintagers further to your complaints.

Given these facts, it is really unfortunate that members of our staff showed themselves disrespectful of our instructions. They deceived our confidence and above all, they did not match the high level of professionalism which characterizes our team. That is why Mr Delmas did not hesitate to summon, to reprimand and to sanction severely the perpetrators.

Nevertheless, it is as well regrettable that yourself did not inform us of these events in the proper time and place, so as to rectify immediately this situation.

I give you confirmation of what Mister Delmas has already told you repeatedly : we are ready to pay the cleaning of your stained clothes. In spite of the fact that you did not produce any documentary evidence so far, I take advantage of this present to send you
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a 1500F cheque which will widely cover the expenses that you claim to have supported and for which you have no invoice.

Furthermore, we can't see any objection to pay you off the damages done on your scooter, if they were really caused by any of the employees of our company. Our lawyer, Mister Lindner, will study the documentary evidences which you could send to him about it. First of all, it would be helpful to send him copies of your complaint to the police, of the statements made to your insurance company, and of the invoices made out by the garage. His office will hold us informed, as well as you, about the appropriate actions to take.

Nevertheless, if I can understand your anger concerning the regrettable incident, as much I condemn your way of doing. I don't appreciate at all your threats against our company, which I shall defend strongly moreover, against your future threats and possible defamations. Furthermore, I cannot accept your insinuations saying that the Management could witness your incident without reacting. You are the first to know that this is far from being the truth.

We are a family-size company. Our style of management is based on family values and I am sure that Mister Delmas acted for the best to respect these values. We are sorry that you keep only a bad memory of your stay in our company, and we are quite confident that such incidents will never happen again in our vineyard.

In your recent letter to our Vice-president, you passed remarks about our Web site. I admit that, as I attend to translations personally, I am the only one to be blamed for possible errors. I hope that such errors are well balanced with the quality of the information we offer to our guests.

I dare say that this letter comes up to your expectations and concerns. I have just come back from New York which was the scene of a real tragedy. Faced with this disaster, I think that we should terminate our disputes and look to the future in a positive and unselfish way.

Yours sincerely.

Duchesse de Mouchy, President and CEO.

The 1001 01

Enc. : Cheque