In 1973, then an engineer at IBM, Jean-Michel Cazes joined the Médoc where his father, insurer and mayor of Pauillac, entrusted him with the exploitation of the vines of Chateau Lynch-Bages, the property of the family since 1939. He undertook the modernization of Lynch-Bages and Ormes de Pez. From 1988, he acquired new vineyards: Villa Bel-Air in the Graves, then the Domaine de l'Ostal in La Livinière in the Languedoc, and in 2005, the Domaine des Sénéchaux in Châteauneuf-du-Pape, and a few years later, the Château Haut-Batailley in Pauillac. He has also created new wines, in Portugal (Quinta do Meco in the Douro Valley) and in Australia (Tapanappa). From 1986, he took part in the construction of Axa-Millésimes (Pichon-Longueville and Cantenac-Brown in Médoc, Quinta do Noval in Portugal, Disznokö in Hungary, etc.), which he managed for 14 years.