Vignobles André Lurton

The story

The Making of Pessac-Léognan

Through the late 1970s and into the early 1980s, André Lurton spent years pressing the INAO to separate the Graves appellation into two. The argument he advanced was geological: the 16 communes clustered north and west of Bordeaux city — Léognan, Martillac, Pessac, Mérignac among them — sat on deep Günzian gravel, material carried from the Pyrenees by ancient glaciers and deposited metres thick over clay and limestone subsoil. The broader Graves appellation to the south had sandier, lighter ground and produced wine of a different weight and cellar life. The discussions ran for years. In September 1987, the INAO formally recognised Pessac-Léognan as a standalone appellation. Every major estate Lurton had acquired and developed — Château La Louvière, Château Couhins-Lurton, and Château de Rochemorin — fell inside the new boundary he had spent more than a decade working to establish.

From the atlas

Vignobles André Lurton

At A Glance

Vignobles André Lurton is a Bordeaux family group whose bottles move between Château Bonnet in Entre-deux-Mers and Bordeaux, and estates in Pessac-Léognan including Château de Rochemorin, Château de Cruzeau and Château Coucheroy. The range is not one house style repeated under several labels: white Sauvignon Blanc, red Bordeaux varieties and separate estate names show how the group works across different appellations.

The Producer

André Lurton, born in 1924 and dead in 2019, built this group around properties with distinct addresses rather than a single château. He also directed Bordeaux’s wine trade body from 1966 to 1986 and helped establish Pessac-Léognan as its own appellation. His son Jacques took responsibility for the group in 2019, so the family name now joins a portfolio in which a Château Bonnet white and a Château de Rochemorin white carry different appellation names and different roles at the table.

Place

Château Bonnet provides the broad Bordeaux base. Its vineyards sit in the Entre-deux-Mers and Bordeaux appellations, where the estate makes both white and red wine; Entre-deux-Mers is attached here to the white side of the range, while Bordeaux carries wines in both colours. Rochemorin, Cruzeau and Coucheroy bring the selection into Pessac-Léognan, the Graves appellation whose separate status André Lurton helped secure. The label therefore tells more than colour: it identifies whether the bottle comes from Bonnet’s larger mixed holding or from a named Pessac-Léognan estate.

Soil And Site

The most useful physical measure is Château Bonnet’s scale: 135 hectares, divided into 85 hectares of white vines and 50 hectares of red vines. That division explains why Bonnet can supply a substantial white-wine offer alongside Bordeaux red, while the Pessac-Léognan properties appear as separate estate bottles. The supplied estate material does not set out a soil or slope profile for these wines, so the distinction worth following is the vineyard address and appellation printed on the label.

Story

The group’s history is marked by recovery as much as inheritance. Château Bonnet dates to the 16th century, entered the family when André Lurton’s grandfather Léonce Récapet acquired it in 1897, and became the group headquarters in 1953. André Lurton later acquired the neglected vineyard at Château de Rochemorin in 1973 and began restoring Château de Cruzeau in 1975. Those decisions returned working vines to old properties and expanded the range from Bonnet’s Entre-deux-Mers and Bordeaux wines into named Pessac-Léognan bottles.

Vineyards And Cellar

At Château de Rochemorin, the 2022 white is made entirely from Sauvignon Blanc and includes oak ageing. A single grape keeps the wine’s fruit and acidity at the centre; oak ageing adds another element of texture and weight rather than turning it into a generic Bordeaux white. The cellar choice matters because Pessac-Léognan Sauvignon Blanc can be read through both grape and method: fresh fruit first, then the fuller feel supplied by ageing.

Château Bonnet’s plantings are divided by colour, with white vines covering the larger share of the estate and red vines the remaining 50 hectares. That arrangement supports a range in which white wine is not an afterthought, while Bonnet Rouge and the Pessac-Léognan reds can remain separate expressions rather than being treated as interchangeable claret.

Wines

Château Bonnet is the wide doorway into the portfolio: white wine from its Entre-deux-Mers vineyards, plus Bordeaux wines in red and white from a 135-hectare estate. Château Bonnet Red 2021 sits on the red side of that structure, where fruit, body, tannin and ageing shape a straightforward Bordeaux red experience. Its role is breadth and daily usefulness, not the same estate-specific statement made by the Pessac-Léognan labels.

Château de Rochemorin White 2022 narrows the focus to 100% Sauvignon Blanc from Pessac-Léognan, with oak ageing adding weight to the wine’s acidity and citrus-fruit profile. Château de Cruzeau, a 60-hectare Pessac-Léognan estate restored from 1975, extends the group’s estate range in both white and red varieties. Château Coucheroy Rouge 2021 is another Pessac-Léognan red, with its own documented blend and tasting profile; it belongs beside, rather than beneath, Bonnet Rouge because it comes from a different named estate and appellation.

In The Glass

The clearest white sequence begins with Château de Rochemorin White 2022: Sauvignon Blanc brings citrus fruit and acidity, while oak ageing broadens the middle of the palate. Expect the wine to move from fresh fruit into a rounder texture, then finish dry rather than sweet. That combination is useful with food because acidity keeps the palate moving while the oak-aged weight stops the wine feeling slight.

The reds divide along label and address. Château Bonnet Red 2021 belongs with fruit, body and tannin in the familiar Bordeaux-red frame; Château Coucheroy Rouge 2021 carries Pessac-Léognan on the label and should be approached as a separate red with its own blend. In both cases, tannin supplies grip, fruit supplies the first impression, and the finish is where the wine’s weight becomes clear.

A Bottle To Understand It

Start with Château de Rochemorin White 2022. It is a 100% Sauvignon Blanc from Pessac-Léognan, made at an estate André Lurton acquired and replanted in 1973 after neglect. The bottle joins a rescued vineyard to a concrete cellar decision: crisp citrus fruit and acidity meet the added body and texture of oak ageing, finishing dry. It is the most direct way into the group’s work with estate restoration, Pessac-Léognan and white Bordeaux.

Anecdote

Château de Rochemorin was founded in 1520, and its grounds were later owned by Montesquieu, who was born there in 1689 and learned winegrowing from his father. By 1973, when André Lurton acquired the property, the vineyard had been neglected for decades. He replanted it, replacing abandoned vines with a working vineyard again. The result was not a museum property but a Pessac-Léognan estate capable of producing wine under the Château de Rochemorin name, including the Sauvignon Blanc white that remains in the group’s range.

Final Word

Look first at the château name and appellation. Château Bonnet offers the group’s large, mixed white-and-red foundation; Château de Rochemorin, Cruzeau and Coucheroy bring individual Pessac-Léognan estates into view. A Rochemorin white makes the connection especially plainly: Sauvignon Blanc, oak, a replanted vineyard and a specific Bordeaux address in one glass.

Sources

https://www.bkwine.com/features/wine-producer-profiles/jacques-lurton-of-vignobles-andre-lurton/

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andr%C3%A9_Lurton

https://www.andrelurton.com/en/chateau/chateau-bonnet

https://www.andrelurton.com/en/chateau/chateau-de-rochemorin

https://www.andrelurton.com/en/chateau/chateau-de-cruzeau

https://www.andrelurton.com/en/vin/chateau-bonnet-red-2021/

https://www.andrelurton.com/en/vin/chateau-de-rochemorin-white-2022/

https://boutique.andrelurton.com/products/chateau-coucheroy-rouge-pessac-leognan-2021-3-bouteilles-x-15-40