One of the many special offerings that the Academy has announced as part of the celebration of the school’s bicentennial in 2018, is a Cuvée Bicentennaire, produced by well-known French winemaker, Jean-Louis Chave. Orders are being taken now for delivery in the winter of 2017–2018.

Chave is the husband of Erin Cannon Chave, a 1985 graduate of the Academy. The couple met when she worked for a California-based importer of French wines. They married and now live, with their two children, in the Rhone Valley—about one hour’s drive from Grenoble, the birthplace of Philippine Duchesne. The Chave family has been growing grapes and making wine in this region in France since 1481.

The wine which will be offered, featuring the Academy’s special bicentennial logo, will be Chave’s Cotes du Rhone—commonly subtitled Mon Coeur. (Think, “My heart will abide here.”) It will be sold in 6-bottle cases for $180. It must be picked up from the distribution point at the Academy when its arrival is announced.

The deadline to order Cuvée Bicentennaire: is June 30, 2016.  CLICK HERE to order.

While so much was happening outdoors this summer to transform our campus and the entrance approaches, parking spaces and play areas, some wonderful things were happening close by in the Shrine of St. Philippine Duchesne. As part of the five-year plan undertaken by the Alumni Association in anticipation of the Bicentennial in 2018, one of the needs identified by the administration (and certainly by the Shrine Director) was a way to accommodate pilgrims who arrive at a time when no volunteer docent is on duty.