Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt together in 2015. Photo / AP
Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt together in 2015. Photo / AP
Divorced Hollywood stars’ legal battle over Château Miraval heats up.
Brad Pitt “looted” the Château Miraval vineyard he co-owned with ex-wife Angelina Jolie in Provence, spending millions of dollars on swimming pool renovations and a recording studio, lawyers suing the actor have claimed.
Nouvel, a company through which Jolie previouslyowned a stake in the French winery, said in a filing to a court in California on Monday that it was owed more than US$350 million ($563 million) by Pitt and his partners. The company alleged they “engaged in increasingly outrageous actions to retain control” of Miraval, while allegedly “stripping [the rosé producer] of its assets”.
The allegations that Pitt acted like a “petulant child” while engaging in a “blatant money grab” are the latest salvo in a bitter legal feud between the Hollywood stars. They filed for divorce in acrimonious circumstances in 2016, with Jolie accusing Pitt of a drunken attack on her and the couple’s children while on a private flight to the US.
The 59-year-old has denied the assault allegations, and accused Jolie in previous court filings of attempting to damage his reputation by selling Nouvel, which contained her share of Miraval, “behind [his] back” to Russian-born billionaire Yuri Shefler’s Stoli Group, for US$64 million in 2021. Pitt said in previous filings that the two had agreed “that they would sell their interests separately only with the other’s consent”, a claim Jolie has denied.
The depth of the duo’s domestic dispute has been laid bare in the lawsuits over the vineyard, which the couple bought for €25 million ($44 million) in 2008, after touring properties on France’s Mediterranean coast. The rosé brand they established with the help of famed Rhône winemaker Marc Perrin went on to generate more than €15 million in profits in 2022, according to the filings.
Since the divorce, Pitt has “masterminded a so-far-successful plan to seize de facto control of Château Miraval”, Nouvel’s lawyers claimed on Monday, alleging that he had frozen Shefler’s Stoli out of running the company by refusing to appoint neutral directors to the board of the Luxembourg-based entity through which the vineyard operates.
An aerial view of the Château Miraval estate. Photo / AP
Pitt’s lawyers declined to comment. Perrin’s team did not respond to a request for comment. People briefed on Pitt’s strategy called the claims “absurd” and said the investments into the property had been “to the benefit of the business”. They pointed to the fact that Miraval’s rosé had recently been ranked the best in Provence by Le Figaro magazine.
Lawyers for Pitt had previously accused Shefler and Stoli of attempting a “hostile takeover” of the vineyard, where the two actors were married. Pitt also maintains he still owns 60 per cent of the estate, claiming he only “nominally” transferred 10 per cent to Jolie in 2013.
Nouvel’s legal team said Jolie had initially tried to sell her share of Miraval to Pitt, but walked away because he made the deal contingent on her signing a non-disparagement agreement.
They further alleged that Pitt has wasted “millions on vanity projects, including more than US$1 million on swimming pool renovations, building and rebuilding a staircase four times, and spending millions to restore a recording studio”. They added that Pitt spent “nearly a million euros a year constantly rebuilding stone walls using stone masons from Croatia”, and close to €3 million on unspecified expenses such as “garment work”.
In Monday’s filing, Shefler’s company accused Pitt’s team of launching a “xenophobic, untrue smear campaign worthy of [Vladimir] Putin himself” against the Russian-born entrepreneur, who they said had been forced into exile by his criticism of the Kremlin and had stood up for LGBT rights. Pitt’s lawyers had previously alleged that Stoli’s ownership “threatens harm to Miraval’s carefully honed reputation and brand” due to his alleged links to Russian and Saudi Arabian state actors.
Nouvel claimed Pitt also turned over half the value of Miraval’s trademarks to Perrin, without the express permission of Jolie’s former holding company, which is a joint-owner. The trademarks were originally registered ahead of a potential joint venture with luxury goods group LVMH, Nouvel said in court documents, although no such deal ever went ahead.
Earlier this year, LVMH purchased a majority stake in Château Minuty in Provence, after acquiring a controlling interest in another local rosé winery, Château d’Esclans, in 2019.
Responding to claims that Jolie “did none of the work necessary for Miraval’s success”, but instead “stood by as Pitt invested money and sweat equity into the home and business”, Nouvel’s lawyers said: “Jolie’s and Pitt’s endorsement is what made the Miraval brand successful — more successful than Familles Perrin’s competing rosés.”
They disputed that Pitt, who has won Academy Awards as a producer and actor, had been deeply devoted to viticulture. “Pitt is an actor, not a winemaker. He deals in illusions, not dirt and grapes,” they wrote.
