Château de Fargues

The estate

Raymond Guilhem de Fargues, a nephew of Pope Clement V, had the fortress built in 1306. It came to the Lur family in 1472, when Pierre de Lur married Isabeau de Montferrand, lady of Fargues, and the Saluces name joined theirs in 1586. Fargues was the family’s seat 3 centuries before Yquem, which arrived only in 1785, with the marriage of Françoise-Joséphine de Sauvage d’Yquem and Louis-Amédée de Lur Saluces. Fire gutted the building on the night of May 24, 1687, and it stood open to the sky for more than 300 years. France put it on the national register of historic monuments on December 11, 2007, and the roof went back on in a campaign finished in March 2021, which brought part of the building back into use.

Why is Fargues in no classification? Édouard Féret, the co-author of Bordeaux et ses vins, the reference book of the Bordeaux trade, gives the answer in his survey of the Sauternes country of 1908. He goes through the commune of Fargues grower by grower, down to the men making 2 tonneaux (the old Bordeaux measure of a crop, 900 liters, or 4 barrels), and Château de Fargues is there, at 50 tonneaux, in the hands of the heirs of the Marquis de Lur Saluces, under the heading for red wine. The edition of 1868 of Bordeaux et ses vins says the same of the commune at large: what is not pine and oak is largely red vines making ordinary wine for local drinking. A red wine estate could not be ranked among the white growths, and the first sweet Fargues came only in 1943.

Alexandre de Lur Saluces took over Yquem in 1968 and ran it until 2004, LVMH having become majority shareholder in 1999. What he kept for himself was Fargues, and he spent the rest of his life enlarging it: 9.5 hectares when he took it on in 1968, 14.37 at the 2007 vintage, 21.17 at the 2017, planted 80% Sémillon and 20% Sauvignon Blanc on clay and limestone, with vines 35 years old on average. He died on July 24, 2023. His son Philippe, the 16th of the line, has run the estate since, with his wife Charlotte, and François Amirault is responsible for production.

There is 1 wine, no second wine and no dry white. The grapes are picked by hand in successive passes for the botrytis, 3 of them between September 26 and October 13 at the 2017 vintage. The family’s own measure is barely 1 glass of wine a vine, where a full crop would give 1 bottle: in 2020 the harvest came in at 6 hectoliters a hectare, and only 3 of those went into the wine, against the 25 the appellation allows. Fermentation is in barrel on the vineyard’s own yeasts, and the wine spends 30 months in wood, 40% of it new at the 2020 vintage. In 1972, 1974, 1992 and 2012 nothing was bottled at all.

At a glance

Appellation

Sauternes

Commune

Fargues

Classification

MICHELIN Guide, 2 grapes (2026); a red wine estate in 1855

Owners

The Lur Saluces family, since 1472

Direction

Philippe de Lur Saluces, the 16th of the line, since 2023; François Amirault, production

Vineyard

21.17 hectares at the 2017 vintage, from 9.5 in 1968; vines 35 years old on average

Ground

Clay and limestone

Grapes

Sémillon 80%, Sauvignon Blanc 20%

Cellar

Picked by hand in successive passes; fermented in barrel on its own yeasts; 30 months in wood, 40% new at the 2020 vintage

Production

6 hectoliters a hectare harvested in 2020, 3 of them into the wine; the appellation allows 25

Wines

Château de Fargues, and nothing else

The fortress

Built in 1306; gutted by fire on the night of May 24, 1687; on the national register of historic monuments since December 11, 2007

Nothing bottled

1972, 1974, 1992, 2012

Sources: Château de Fargues, the palace fortress · Château de Fargues, the wine · Château de Fargues, the vintages · Château de Fargues, the 2020 vintage · Château de Fargues, the 2017 vintage · Plateforme ouverte du patrimoine, Château de Fargues · Union des Grands Crus de Bordeaux, Château de Fargues · INAO and the BO-AGRI, cahiers des charges · Wine Spectator, the death of Alexandre de Lur Saluces