The Lurtons of Bordeaux: Expanding the World of Fine Wines, Part 2

As we have seen, the Lurton family in Bordeaux over the course of the last century began to have wine holdings throughout the region. By dint of hard work and devotion to producing fine wine, plus financial planning that would do credit to a saga by Balzac, they have created a series of excellent wine property portfolios. Now let’s take a look at the present generation, which is young, surprisingly skilled in managerial affairs, and highly productive.  Chateau Brane Cantenac wine is now made by Lucien’s son, Henri Lurton, whom I met at VinExpo Americas in New York in October, 2002. I tasted the 2000 Brane Cantenac with him, and found it a smooth wine, still of course quite tannic in its youthful days. It was not possible to determine from one tasting, particlarly from the rather forward 2000 vintage, whether, the elegant traditional style of Brane Cantenac has been adjusted in favor of a different style. The second growth Chateau Durfort-Vivens, also from the Margaux region, has always been one of my favorites. It is made by Gonzague Lurton, Lucien Lurton’s son. Their 2000 I put down as a classic fine Bordeaux, tasty, rather lean and stylish.  To complete my 2000 vintage tastings from the younger Lurton generation, I was most pleased to meet Sophie Lurton-Cogombles, proprietor of Chateau Bouscaut of Pessac-Leognan in the Graves  region, a wine that is 50% Merlot. We had always liked Chateau Bouscaut, so much so that we served it at our daughter’s wedding rehearsal dinner. Their 2000 was excellent, open and approachable and quite tasty. This is an unpretentious wine of fine taste that you can serve with assurance. I have no doubt that the matching white wine from Bouscaut would be equally palatable.  But it was up to their cousins Francois and Jacques Lurton to expand the family wine interests on an interntional basis – running into some family resistance in the process.  I was pleased to have luncheon with Francois Lurton, a son of Andre Lurton, in late June, 2004, and have the opportunity to learn about the farflung international enterprises that he and his brother Jacques have undertaken. Their portfolio now includes “seventy or seventy-one” wine properties or investments in five countries: France, Spain, Chile, Uruguay, and Argentina. Jacques Lurton is a graduate of Bordeaux Univesity’s Institute of Oenology, while Francois Lurton specialized in business studies and accounting, before accepting a regional sales manager position with Moet et Chandon. The brothers formed their holding company, Jacques et Francois Lurton S.A. in 1988, and within a decade, were starting their overseas wine projects.  And so our tasting was a truly international one, with a traditional Bordeaux touch of fine quality and family pride. It was interesting to note that the wines did not seem to have suffered from their shipment. There were familiar grapes used in a new way. For example, the Ugni Blanc, considered mediocre as a wine grape, but valued in the Charentes in its distilled form as a grape source for Cognac, appeared in the Terra Sana White wine, an organic wine from the Languedoc and Charente. And there was a grape sometimes found in small quantities in the Bordeaux region, the Carmenere, which formed the base of a fine red wine from the Lurton portfolio in Chile. The Carmenere grape does well in a hot climate, we were informed. Therefore, if 2003 was not an exception in its terrible heat for France, and the warming continues there as elsewhere, Francois Lurton speculated that some new or different grape varieties might be grown in the Bordeaux regions, including more Carmenere.  This was an example of thinking ahead, beyond what is now practiced, to consider what might work better in the future. This elegant, fresh thinking was not one might have expected from a Bordeaux family with strong ties to traditional quality and methods of wine making. We also discussed the problems associated with cork aging, both chemical contamination from the corks themslves, and the problems of maintaining a sufficiently tight seal as wines age and their corks inevitably deteriorate. The subject arose when we tasted their “Les Fumees Blanches,” a 100% Sauvignon Blanc wine that has screwtop packaging. Francois Lurton said that screwtops had been used at Chateau Bonnet for their white wine for a number of years, but not perhaps a sufficient number for a firm judgment on their comparative merit. He also said that “wine doesn’t need oxygen in order to age,” and that carbon dioxide or nitrogen could be inserted instead, drawing off the oxygen. Certainly the wine that we tasted showed no ill effects fom the new packaging and production.  Mr. Lurton commented that sometimes, French methods were introduced abroad. In South America, for example, there were areas where production took place many miles from where the grapes were grown. The Lurtons introduced the French practice of production on the spot, with the facilities for fermentation, aging and bottling colocated with the grapes. He took special pride in their Spanish portfolio, wines from the Toro region in the northern part of the country. Some wines had traditionally been produced in this area, along the pilgrim route to Santiago de Compostela. The Lurtons had clearly produced high quality wines from the region.  Here are some notes on the wines tasted, with retail pricing where available.  Terra Sana White 2002 ($11). This was a fresh young wine from France, excellent to start a luncheon. It is 85% Ugni Blanc, 10 % Colombard, and 5% Sauvignon Blanc.  “Fumees Blanches” 2002 ($8.50). Also from France, the rustic Tarn Valley, this was the smoothest light white wine served. It is 100% Sauvignon Blanc, and a bargain. I would compare it favorably with the Graves Chateau Carbonnieux Blanc, at three times the price. As mentioned, it has screwtop packaging. Don’t let that scare you away fom trying this fine wine.  Hermes Lurton “Rueda” 2003 from Spain ($11.99). This was a fuller wine, with more body and less finesse. I think that it would show better by itself, complementing a flavorful…