Before the critic Robert Parker rated his wines, Jean-Luc Thunevin was a stranger. No link with the wine world: arriving from Algeria, his family had chosen Larzac to settle in France. Today, he represents a model of success, his vineyard has become, in a generation, an area that matters. The case remains rare, but the man is not trivial either: he has a monster nerve. “Since my first wine, I have lacked education, he likes to say. I did not respect the hierarchy and I sold my wine more expensive than the premier crus. “
“Parker is the maker of my credibility. Now that he’s retired, he has no equivalent. It’s a shame for new talent. »Jean-Luc Thunevin
In a world where protocol is the order of the day, the bad boy quickly finds his way. In 1991, the new winemaker produced 2,500 bottles from his first plot of vines, skillfully located between the Cheval-Blanc and Ausone châteaux: “By choosing to settle in the right place, I had a chance that my wine would be better known. “ And indeed, from its first vintage, the greatest of the prescribers of the time, Robert Parker, came to see the intruder.
“Even though there was no shortage of critics in the wine world, Parker’s influence was immense, says Jean-Luc Thunevin. He was able to change a fate. My stroke of luck is that it was easy for him to stop for five minutes between two large castles. “ The so-called Grand Bob assigns a 93/100 to 1991 de Valandraud, with the following sentence: ” too expensive “. Then, from year to year, the marks go up at the same time as Thunevin refines his know-how. “I then have the right to a formidable controversy over my prices at the same time as Parker’s remarks open my wine to the American market.. “
It is in 1997 that things change in the dream for Jean-Luc Thunevin: Parker attributes to his wines the best marks of all Bordeaux, the ultimate consecration. “Parker is the maker of my credibility. Now that he’s retired, he has no equivalent. It’s a shame for new talent. “ The Valandraud winemaker admits all the same to continue to look at the marks attributed to his wines: “If I happened to have a bad grade, I would complain!” I’m still so sensitive. “
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