|
|
Lucien Lurton, one of the most influential personalities of the wine community of Bordeaux, died on Saturday at the age of 97. The trade journal "La Revue du Vin de France" honours him as one of the "great architects of the Médoc", who initiated the renaissance of Bordeaux from the 1970s on.
In 1954, Lurton inherited Château Brane-Cantenac in Margaux, which he built up into one of the best addresses in the Médoc with a lot of personal commitment and risk, especially after the frost disaster of 1956. He invested all his money in wine estates in the Médoc, in Graves and Entre-deux-Mers. He acquired the Châteaux Durfort-Vivens, Climens, Villegeorge, Tour de Bessan, Haut-Nouchet, Camarsac, Bouscaut and Desmirail in Margaux. Lucien Lurton always advocated an elegant, racy style in his wines and stuck to it despite the various fashions that favoured more concentration. Today, his wines are considered examples of "drinkability" that is once again appreciated.
Lurton had eleven children with his wife Marie-Jeanne Duvoisin. In the 1990s, he passed on his vineyards to ten of them. Even after his retirement from the operational business, he campaigned for the protection and preservation of the Médoc and fought, among other things, against the expansion of gravel pits and for the classification of the best parcels for viticulture. From 1954 to 2013, he was the administrator of the Margaux wine cooperative. Lucien Lurton passed away peacefully surrounded by his family.
(al / Source: La Revue du Vin de France)