Château Durfort-Vivens

The Free Bacchus Story

There are sixty-one classified growths in the 1855 Médoc classification. A small handful of them farm biodynamically, and Durfort-Vivens was among the first to commit to it fully.

The estate holds three separate marks: Demeter, Ecocert and Biodyvin. That's more certification than almost any classified growth carries, and it reflects a conversion that Gonzague Lurton pursued across the whole property rather than on a demonstration parcel.

Durfort-Vivens is a Margaux Second Growth, which under the 1855 list places it in the tier immediately below the firsts. The wines are Cabernet-dominant and built along classic Margaux lines, perfumed rather than muscular.

Gonzague Lurton has said his father farmed at a time when everyone farmed conventionally, and thought he had lost his mind when he proposed going organic and biodynamic. He owns the property outright, which is the reason he could ignore the advice.

The price is not theoretical. Four fifths of the 2018 crop went to mildew — a Margaux Second Growth losing eighty per cent of its harvest in a single season, on land where a bad vintage is measured in millions. Doing it anyway says something about how seriously the estate takes the farming argument.