Château de Fargues

“FROM YQUEM TO FARGUES THE PURSUIT OF EXCELLENCE. THE STORY OF A FAMILY” - The new book of Alexandre de Lur Saluces 

A single glass of wine per vine: that is the ideal yield when making a Sauternes wine, thanks to a very painstaking selection of grapes. In our impatient, money-obsessed times, that might appear extravagant. A unique elixir, «drunk light,» as Frédéric Dard described it, Sauternes is today weakened by the reduction in dedicated vineyard plots, in favor of dry white wine that is easier to produce, and by the threat posed by a rail construction project to the region’s ecosystem.

Alexandre de Lur Saluces, who has forty years’ experience in the service of the family estates of Yquem and Fargues, here makes a plea for Sauternes, endeavoring to share his passion and to explain the production method of this unique sweet wine, the fruit of man’s labor and an ancestral savoir-faire, of a unique terroir and a miraculous natural phenomenon. He plunges the reader into a timeless world, in what amounts to a declaration of love to a nectar that has been enchanting wine lovers and connoisseurs all over the world since the 16th century.

Built in 1306 par by cardinal Raymond Guilhem de Fargues, Château de Fargues came into the de Lur family in 1472 via marriage, and has been owned by the de Lur Saluces family since 1586.

The Gironde department, located in southwest France (and the country’s largest in terms of appellation contrôlée wine production), is home to one of the oldest fine wine vineyards in the world: Bordeaux. The Bordeaux wine region encompasses some 117,000 hectares of vines and 57 different appellations. Every year, Bordeaux produces over 260 million bottles of wine, which is exported all over the world.

The Gironde benefits from a temperate oceanic climate and extremely diverse terroirs. Furthermore, its epicentre, the city of Bordeaux, can be considered the world capital of wine.

Producing an exemplary sweet white wine, this estate enjoys a special status. This great Sauternes has an extravagant bouquet and a superb flavour, and sometimes displays a surprising touch of minerality with age. Time seems to stand still when enjoying a glass of Château de Fargues, and it leaves a wonderful memory.

Located 40 km south-east of this city designated a World Heritage Site by UNESCO, the Sauternes appellation is home to the world’s greatest sweet white wines. Sauternes has a highly-individual terroir and a microclimate conducive to the development of a mysterious phenomenon – “noble rot” that attacks the grapes makes the wine into something altogether special. Surrounding the village of Fargues, the vineyards of Château de Fargues are located on the Left Bank of the Garonne between the city of Langon and the town of Sauternes, in the heart of this prestigious appellation.

The estate has 15 hectares of vines (and soon 17: 3 hectares are currently being planted on plots where there were previously no vines) all located in the immediate vicinity of the fortress. They sink their roots deep into the gravel and clay soil. In fact, the nature of the soil is a blessing. The clay component acts like a sponge, storing water in winter and releasing it gradually, in keeping with the vines’ needs, in summer, even during drought conditions. This avoids excessive water stress and the vines are never totally without nourishment. Vegetative growth and ripening never stall.

These water reserves are vital during the harvest. Water rising from the subsoil through capillary action has a “vapour effect” on the vine in the form of dew, which is very beneficial to the development of the microscopic fungus, Botrytis cinerea.

Sauvignon Blanc is grown because of its intense aromatics and considerable freshness. This variety has a somewhat thicker skin, but seeing as it is early-ripening, it is attacked by botrytis at the same time as Sémillon, anc can thus can be picked at the same time. Noble rot gives Sauternes in general, and Fargues in particular, preserved lemon aromas and vivacious flavours.   Twenty percent of the vineyard consists of Sauvignon Blanc. The complementarity of these two grape varieties makes for a superbly-balanced wine with fruity, caramelised flavours and a characteristic freshness thanks to Sauvignon Blanc.

This unique terroir also confers a trademark minerality that gives the wine a certain tautness from beginning to end. The interplay between sweetness and minerality account for Fargues’ tremendous depth, balance, and a personality that sets it well and truly apart.

The Sauternes produced by Château de Fargues is the result of outstanding gifts of nature and the motivation – one might even say the stubbornness – of a family devoted to fine wine, and an attentive, enthusiastic winemaking team.
It takes four years to produce wine at Fargues, and work is constantly being done simultaneously on four vintages at any one time.
This is how the refinement and delicious taste sensations are procured at Château de Fargues. Its myriad aromas wake up the senses and coat the palate with a host of sensations.

In the past, winemaking was a secondary activity at Fargues. In the 19th century, for instance, red and white wine grape varieties together accounted for only 10% of the estate’s surface area.  Wine was considered just a simple beverage, and grapes just another crop, mostly grown to make wine to be consumed on the estate. At the time, livestock farming and forest management were the main activities at Fargues, which only became a true wine château in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. It is listed in the 1922 edition of Cocks & Féret (the “Bordeaux Bible”) as producing 50 hogsheads i.e. 60,000 bottles of red wine.