Count Alexandre de Lur Saluces, who spent 36 years managing Château d’Yquem and was a global ambassador for the Sauternes icon, died July 24. He was 89. During his decades at the helm of Yquem, he guarded the property with a passionate commitment to maintaining the highest possible quality.
De Lur Saluces’ legacy was built over 55 years, first and foremost at Château d’Yquem, but also at his family’s Château de Fargues in Sauternes. His family roots in Sauternes stretch back half a millennium, to the late 1400s. His uncle, Marquis Bertrand de Lur Saluces, who is credited with helping establish the Sauternes appellation, bought Château d’Yquem after World War I. In 1966, Bertrand designated Alexandre to help him manage Château d’Yquem. Alexandre took over the winery officially upon Bertrand’s death two years later. Yquem’s ownership was divided among various members of the family.
From 1968 to 2004, Alexandre was the ever-present leader, guiding spirit and quality control of the Sauternes appellation’s undisputed flagship. He embraced the role. Rock stars have groupies, de Lur Saluces had a flock of Yquem fanatics, ready to go to extravagant lengths to secure collectible bottles and pay fantastical prices for their trophies. Some Yquem devotees saw a visit to the shrine itself as the ultimate bucket-list experience.
De Lur Saluces protected that reverence by guarding wine quality. Early on in his tenure, he faced horrible weather conditions and made the costly decision to declassify the entire harvest in 1972, 1974 and again in 1992. Such a quality-at-all-cost approach solidified Yquem’s reputation as one of the most collectible wines through the centuries.
He also wouldn’t let down a visitor, offering a welcome to many Yquem lovers and collectors, not just the famous and the powerful. Guests would often find de Lur Saluces himself waiting on the stairs of the château as they arrived in its courtyard. He was plain to the point of being self-effacing. Bespectacled, balding, of medium-height, he dressed formally—even on a warm day—wearing his trademark checkered blazer, tie and polished dress shoes. He was polite and soft-spoken.
But catch him in a serious mood, and he looked like a frowning bulldog. And when it came to protecting Yquem’s image (and his job), his bite was worse than his bark. He fought an ugly battle against the takeover of Yquem by LVMH, the luxury group headed by Bernard Arnault, who bought 55 percent of Yquem in 1996 from de Lur Saluces’ relatives for $101 million.
For more than two years, Alexandre held Arnault at bay through legal and publicity maneuvers, blocking his access to Yquem—literally. The billionaire businessman complained he couldn’t even set foot on the property of his new acquisition. Feeling threatened and frightened by what LVMH control might mean for the quality standards he had defended at Yquem, de Lur Saluces played defense in the courtrooms and disparaged Arnault in the court of public opinion.
Finally, the two adversaries reached a deal. On April 19, 1999, Arnault flew from Paris to Bordeaux and met with de Lur Saluces at Yquem. The count served a bottle of Yquem 1899 to make the celebration special. “I found in Count Alexandre de Lur Saluces a person who is totally open, as well as passionate and refined,” Arnault told Wine Spectator shortly afterward. “I pay my respect to him to have brought this wine to this level.”
Arnault promised to respect the quality standards and traditions so dear to the count and appointed de Lur Saluces CEO of the estate. He remained in that role until LVMH rules led to his retirement in 2004 at age 70.
Not ready to retire completely, de Lur Saluces turned his abilities and energy to the family’s other historical estate, Château de Fargues, working with his son Philippe. Not surprisingly for such a dynamic vintner, Alexandre was active to the very end.
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