A gentleman farmer, Alexandre de Lur Saluces, is relaxed and comfortable on his home ground. Château de Fargues is a 172 hectares, mixed – farming property. 15 hectares are under vines, with one hectare of very old vines(planted in the 1930’s)just being uprooted.
A prime herd 35 – 40 head) of Bazas cattle grace peacefully on the wide, open prairie during the day and return to the cattle sheds for the night, where they create excellent manure to be used for the entire property.

The property also grows a crop of maize (25 hectares), a part of which is used as cattle fodder, guaranteeing the excellence of the deliciously, aromatic beef. 100 hectares of Château de Fargues land is dedicated to forestry.
Good management and rigorous maintenance have ensured the excellent condition of the maritime pine, a number of acacia trees (for the production of the vine stakes), as well as a large number of oak and chestnut trees, which still flourish and bear witness of the management skills of the De Lur Saluces family.


TASTING NOTES
1999 Château de Fargues
AOC Sauternes
Colour : Fine, brilliant, beautiful, pale gold, delicate touch of lemon reflections.
Nose : Elegant attack, fresh citrous and sun ripened peach aromas, fine and pure, classic expression of Botrytis, with great restraint.
Palate : Wonderful freshness on the attack, still plenty of lingering citrus flavours, delicate power and harnessed richness, long in the mouth and balance of sugar and acidity grows on the palate.
Finish : Airy texture, lingering aromas, immensely satisfying, complete flavours, elegant pleasure, hint of subtle honey notes – invites enjoyment of this very Classical vintage.

This Sauternes is still youthful and only just offering a glimpse of a glorious future. Although tempting to enjoy it now, cellaring 1999 Château de Fargues for a few more years will only enhance one’s pleasure – giving the wine time to unfold its full potential of stylish power, developed elegance, excellence and finesse.
[13,9° Alcohol, 122grams of residual sugar, 4,9g/l acidity Since 2000, Alexandre de Lur Saluces, having identified the best plots, has carried out an ongoing and logical programme of reconstructing the vineyards, consolidating it to its present size and continuing the process of replanting.


In the 1930, the Marquis de Lur Saluces recognised the enormous potential of the property to produce sweet white wine, transforming the 25 hectares of red grape vineyards, planted in the previous century.
The vines are now on average 37 years old, with some vines of between 20 – 25 years old, which offers an intermediary expression. Château de Fargues is situated in a privilege microclimate, which benefits from all the prerequisites to produce fine, Botrytised sweet wine.

It is surrounded by forests, near to both the Garonne River and the much colder Ciron stream. It possesses very homogenous gravel soil (20 – 25cm) over a very deep red clay and medium sized gravel subsoil, ideal for growing excellent Semillon (80 - 85% of the surface area) and Sauvignon Blanc (15 - 20% of the vines) due to its early ripening potential. It is subjected to early autumn mists, swirling up against the relatively steep outcrops on which the vines are located.

It enjoys the late heat of summer days and exposure to year round ventilation by winds due to its exposure on the hill side. Finally and above all else, the development of Noble Rot through the action of the wonderful fungus, Botrytis Cinerea, is at its perfect best here at Château de Fargues.The vineyards profit from an excellent drainage network.


The vines are planted at a density of 7,000 rootstocks per hectares. Guided by the philosophy of minimum intervention with practical ecology and economy as a guideline, the viticultural practices are traditional.
The soil is naturally nourished and enriched (with farmyard manure) to compensate for any deficiencies, only if and when required. No chemical weed killers used. Ploughing to aerate the soil and to cover the vine in winter and to unearth it in spring. Pruning on the Double Guyot system with suckering of the vines, green pruning, deleafing, phyto – sanitary treatments, all this and more is done with care and skill.

Nothing is done unless necessary and never more than required. Any possible threat or danger from potential insect infestation or from fungus attacks are carefully observed and predicted. Château de Fargues possesses its own weather station, which greatly facilitates the predicting weather related problems.Everything is done to ensure that the top quality, healthy and ripening grapes, grow in both sugar level and in aromatic richness, in order to produce truly fine quality Sauternes.

In consequence, richly concentrated grapes, with 360 gram of sugar per litre, with maximum Botrytis, and a potential alcohol content of 21° minimum are produced. A passionate desire to complete the mysterious and miraculous transformation from a lusciously ripe grape to a magnificent victim of Noble Rot, which will keep connoisseurs salivating for decades, is the driving force.
Recently, the production has varied between 10 - 16 hectolitres per hectares, but very often much smaller crops(only 1,000 bottles per hectare !).


The vintage is in the hands of an experienced team of pickers, returning vintage after vintage, and armed with especially sharp pointed, narrow scissors in order to pick berry by berry. “They need to interpret what is happening in the vineyards and react accordingly. The cellar is only a kitchen, an excellent Château de Fargues Sauternes is created in the vineyards and by the pickers !”, states François Amirault, the Manager of the property.

The vintage commences only when the grapes are fully Botrytised and can take up to two months, involving going through the vineyard time after time to gather the crop in successive pickings, sometimes three times, sometimes seven times, and sometimes even more. Unfortunately, there are also years when no Château de Fargues is produced!In order to capture this complex variety of aromas and rich flavours, each plot is vinified separately. The carefully picked berries are rapidly transported to the beautifully transformed 17th Century cellar (an old hay barn).

The grapes are pressed, extremely slowly and very delicately, in two pneumatic horizontal presses (to a pressure of 6kg) and one vertical (8kg pressure), to gently squeeze out the delicious, unctuous juice, which is transferred to between 50 - 60 carefully selected oak barrels to ferment. One year wine barrels are brought from Château d’Yquem to compliment the fine, rich juice with their delicate oak nuances.

The homogenous soil of Château de Fargues gives its wine a distinctive structure, which enables the grape varieties and the different expression of the Botrytis Cinerea in each barrel to come to the fore, but this precludes the use of new oak.
Indigenous yeasts are used as they are of exceptional quality and totally in harmony with the wine. The fermentation takes up to three weeks and stops of its own accord - a snap of cold weather does not go amiss, at around 13.5° alcohol with approximately 100 – 120 grams per litre of unfermented residual sugar.


Château de Fargues would never dream of chaptalising. Alexandre de Lur Saluces insists upon producing balanced wine, with perfect harmony between the sugar and the acidity. Its magic lies in its unaccountability! It is the wine, always the wine that dictates the exact moment of each intervention.

Regular rackings take place every three to four months, and the minimum amount of sulphur is used. The blending of the vintage takes place over several months, starting after about a year and a half in barrel.
Once an opinion has been formed about the evolutionary pattern of each barrel, the process begins little by little, lot by lot, and continues until around four months before the bottling. The richer the juice, the higher the level of Botrytis, the greater the differences in the various lots and plots. These differences have to be interpreted skilfully for the long term benefit and complexity of the wine.

The Sauternes from Château de Fargues needs three years of maturing in barrel to integrate the different levels of richness and of expression into one perfect and harmonious entity. In the calm and peace of the cellar the wine unfolds its secrets and expresses its depths, its personality and its full potential. This mystery is interpreted by Alexandre de Lur Saluces and his Cellar Master – Property Manager, François Amirault, with great patience and immense talent. Blending is indeed a fine craft !

The blended wine is fined with fish gelatine (Isinglass), either in a warm preparation or in a cold one, depending on the structure of the wine and the composition of the matter in suspension. The barrels of wine are put into stainless steel vats for perfect homogenisation.
No filtration as such, rather a very light straining, before bottling.
Classically, the wines of Château de Fargues usually needs 10 years at least to show their complex qualities and potential, and another 10 to give full expression to their inherent elegance and finesse, to disclose their candied fruit aromas and their roasted Botrytis flavours. This is achieved, in the words of Alexandre de Lur Saluces “by meticulous attention to myriad details, from beginning to end, this is the secret of the magnificence of the wine”.


The “savoir – faire”, acquired over centuries, must be safeguarded to assure the future of the property, and transmitted with passion from generation to generation. It is essential to continue, over the next 15 years, the replanting that has is underway and there are 8 hectares, which could eventually be planted with vines.
Alexandre de Lur Saluces wishes to perpetuate the property as a farm community. Each and every member of his personnel is totally involved in all the aspects of the farm, the vineyards and the cellars. An excellent team spirit prevails at Château de Fargues. It is a small, tight – knit, contented family community.


The marketing approach needs to be adapted to the demands of commerce of the 21st Century. Breaking into markets with only very restricted quantities is far from easy. The château puts between only 40 – 50 barrels, approximately. 15,000 bottles, on the market per annum. The best approach is to treat the property as one would a trademark, and to concentrate on client loyalty.
Even more direct contact with customers is being pursued. Château de Fargues must develop its markets without sacrificing the true concepts and principles, which embody all that it stands for.Château de Fargues does not produce a second wine and, since 1993, a dry, barrel fermented and matured (one year), white wine Guilhem de Fargues.

This refreshingly elegant wine when young, matures into a rich and opulent expression of its grape varieties, thanks to a judicial maturing in oak barrel for one year.Tasting notes of all the other vintages of Château de Fargues tasted will soon be appearing on our Website.

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