On the hunt for Sauvignon Blanc

François Lurton’s family has been making wine in Bordeaux since 1897. The ambitious vintner represents the fifth generation to work in wine, but he expanded his horizons to include unique vineyards around the world.

At a recent tasting in Oakville, Ont., Lurton shared insight into how his efforts in Argentina, Chile and Spain influence the wine he makes in his native France.

“My way of working is the sum of the experiences I have had everywhere in the world,” said the owner of three estates in the South of France and international wineries, which he originally purchased with his brother, Jacques, before the two parted company in 2007.

One of the highlights of his French portfolio is Les Fumées Blanches Sauvignon Blanc. Its global success has made him the largest producer of Sauvignon Blanc in France, he says.

White wine is part of his DNA, he explains, having grown up in Pessac-Léognan and EntreDeux-Mers, regions in Bordeaux equally adept at producing Sauvignon Blanc and Semillon-based wines, as well as red blends of Cabernet and Merlot.

Lurton explains that he’s been able to grow the volume and the quality of Les Fumées Blanches since the creation of the Vins du France category. The new appellation of origin designation allows winemakers to produce multiregional blends they can market with the vintage date and grape variety declared on the label.

Under the old rules, this blend would have been classified as a table wine, a humble designation that won’t allow vintage or grape variety to appear on the label.

Lurton insists he pushed for the Vins de France classification to enable him to produce better quality wines at a budget-friendly price. It also allows for better competition, he added.

“From one origin, you can make a fabulous wine, but in tiny volumes,” he says. “For me, it has been a great advantage to blend the regions — Loire, Bordeaux, Gascony and Languedoc — to have a wine that’s more complex and more interesting than what I had before.”