andre lurton
andre lurton
(Image credit: andre lurton)

Credit Agricole Grands Crus is to take an 18% stake in one of Bordeaux's largest wine companies, Vignobles Andre Lurton, which will pass out of 100% private ownership for the first time.

André Lurton (pictured) is owner of 264 hectares of vines in Pessac Léognan, and over 300ha in Entre deux Mers and AOC Bordeaux. He was born in 1924, and will turn 88 this year.

The remaining 82% of shares will remain with Lurton and his seven children.

Among the wines concerned are Chateau Bonnet, Chateau Rochemorin, Chateau La Louviere, and the Cru Classé de Graves Chateau Couhins-Lurton.

In total, the group produces over 4m bottles of wine per year, from seven chateaux, with a turnover in 2011 of €21.8m, 60% from exports.

Lurton’s two sons Jacques and François had worked alongside their father, but now each runs his own wine company.

His daughter Christine will continue to run Chateau Dauzac in the Médoc, which is owned by insurance company MAIF, but run by Vignobles Lurton.

Pascal Le Faucheur, director of Vignobles André Lurton, will continue running the group overall.

The vineyard arm of Credit Agricole bank, headed by CA Grand Crus director Thierry Budin, either invests in or part-owns dozens of Bordeaux estates. It owns in full Chateaux Grand-Puy Ducasse in Pauillac, Rayne-Vigneau in Sauternes and Meyney in Saint Estephe.

Credit Agricole has worked with André Lurton for over 40 years, and financed the majority of his vineyard purchases.

Development director Sophie Dano at CA Grands Crus in Paris confirmed to Decanter.com that the company typically assists shareholders where there are problems of succession, but that ‘there are no plans to change anything.

‘This is simply an investment of capital, and we have become minority shareholders.’

Written by Jane Anson in Bordeaux

Jane Anson
Jane Anson

Jane Anson was Decanter’s Bordeaux correspondent until 2021 and has lived in the region since 2003. She writes a monthly wine column for Hong Kong’s South China Morning Post, and is the author of Bordeaux Legends: The 1855 First Growth Wines (also published in French as Elixirs). In addition, she has contributed to the Michelin guide to the Wine Regions of France and was the Bordeaux and Southwest France author of The Wine Opus and 1000 Great Wines That Won’t Cost a Fortune. An accredited wine teacher at the Bordeaux École du Vin, Anson holds a masters in publishing from University College London, and a tasting diploma from the Bordeaux faculty of oenology.

Roederer awards 2016: International Feature Writer of the Year