Domaine de Souch

France, South West

The Story

The story of Yvonne Hegoburu and Domaine de Souch was first brought to the attention of many wine lovers through her memorable appearance in Mondovino, Jonathan Nossiter's documentary on the wine industry. But those with a thirst for under-the-radar, interesting whites have guarded her secret for decades.

Yvonne was a true force of nature, a woman who decided to start a winery at the age of 60, as a tribute to her late husband René.

The Hegoburu family was living in the southwest France town of Pau, and wanted a summer house. In 1963, they found a 16 hectare spot on top of a hill in Laroin, part of the Jurançon AOC, and fell in love. They rebuilt the pile of rubble at the top of the hill into a home, and over the years spent more and more time there. Yvonne and René felt so comfortable in their little paradise, they decided to move their family to the area permanently. They created a bucolic in this stunning spot with sweeping views of the valleys and the Pyrenees in the distance. Their son, Jean-René, still speaks wistfully of those times, “At the time our home was surrounded by meadows, with only a few neighbours and lots of cows, we let the cows to graze on our land in exchange for the freshest eggs and meat. It was heaven.”

Their peaceful life continued until in the mid 1980’s, René died unexpectedly, and suddenly the house was very quiet. The family scattered in different directions: Jean-René returned to work as a lawyer in Paris, and Yvonne went back to Bordeaux, where she worked as a General Manager of a chateau. Eventually they had to make a decision: sell the house or find a reason to keep it. That reason, thankfully, was wine.

René and Yvonne had always talked about starting their own vineyard, but had never quite got round to it. They knew the area had vines a century ago, but the vineyards had been destroyed by phylloxera. So, in memory of her late husband, Yvonne Hegoburu decided to create a winery and invested all their money. Which Jean-Rene says “…was of course still not enough.”

First she needed a name, which she found in the cadestre (official local plan), which labeled their lieu-dit as “Souex”, which in the local dialect Bernais, is pronounced Souch. That settled, Yvonne leveraged her wine world connections, getting valuable advice and encouragement from local farmers, winemakers and even legends from other regions like Didier Dagueneau and Pascal Delbeck. She rolled up her sleeves and dove in.

"The first wine was so good that it won an award in Paris in 1990."

It was Delbeck who later introduced Yvonne to the benefits offered by organic and biodynamic farming. In 1995 she converted the domaine to follow these principles, to much eye rolling from her neighbours. Jean-Rene says, “When Yvonne began, it was difficult to get respect as the family was not from the wine world, not from the region, and the team we assembled came from all over. And on top of that, we wanted to work biodynamically.”

But Yvonne was never the type to care what anyone thought, and she later became one of the iconic supporters of biodynamics in France. Her legacy to the land is not just that Souch was one of the first to embrace better practices in the 90’s, it is that the Souch vineyards have never been farmed any other way, and biodynamic, sustainable and responsible farming remain the driving force behind the domaine today.

"Thirty years of biodynamic farming has made a profound impact on the soils." Manu

In 2008, Yvonne brought in Emmanuel “Manu” Jecker to oversee winemaking, and in 2014, by then in her 80s, Yvonne enlisted her son Jean-René to take over the management of the domaine. She continued until 2023, when she sadly passed away at the age of 95..

Both Manu and Jean-René continue her legacy, and today the domaine makes seven wines: three dry and four sweet, each expressing the different microclimates of their steep slopes and maximising the unique Jurançon terroir. Petit and Gros Manseng grapes make up 98% of the vineyards, with both used for most wines. Gros is used more dominantly in the dry wines and Petit plays a larger role in the sweet wines. They are also championing the use of two rarer local grapes, Corbu and Camaralat, which are used to season the dry wines.

Pressing is done in a pneumatic press and the wines are vinified with indigenous yeasts in stainless steel tanks. The sweet wines are aged in stainless steel to retain freshness and the dry wines are aged in used oak barrels. They found that new barrels changed the style too much, so source older barrels from Pessac or Sauternes, or through a long relationship with one of the friends who helped in their startup efforts, Domaine de Chevalier. As traditional in the region, malolactic fermentation is blocked and a touch of Sulphur is added before and/or after the fermentation, and tweaked when bottling.

Each cuvée has it’s own energy and spirit and have fans far and wide, including some of the world’s finest restaurants. The dry wines are firm favourites with those who love crisp, linear whites, and the sweets challenge those from nearby Bordeaux but at a fraction of the price.

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The People

Most people who met Yvonne Hégoburu remember the first meeting well. She was a remarkable force: a fiery woman with a great smile, a firm handshake, generous spirit and an undeniable devotion to her wines. Her energy still permeates the domaine, including their welcoming house filled with souvenirs of travel to every corner of the globe. It is testament to a well-lived life, and a curious spirit that is reflected in her wine legacy.

The estate is now managed by Jean-René, Yvonne’s son, now in his 60’s, who splits his time between Paris and the domaine. He’s spent his entire life on this land and knows all its secrets. He regularly charges up and down the steep slopes, always a smile on his face. For someone who has been making two or three monthly 3 hour trips from Paris to the domaine for over 45 years, Jean-René remains remarkable engaged and enthusiastic about making wines, just don’t call him passionate.

"I don’t like the word passion. Everyone uses this… someone says ‘I sell a washing machine with passion!’ I prefer the word pleasure. It describes what we do, and what we want in our wine!"

Jean-René often throws a big party at the end of the summer, with half the guests from his life in Paris and half from the winemaking community. It is a true celebration of each part of his life, and of course a great chance for everyone to enjoy the wines.

The cellar Master is Emmanuel Jecker, “Manu”, a longtime member of the team and the true guiding force of the wines. Manu arrived at Souch in 2008, with both viticulture and and oenology degrees, and has made his mark on the wines ever since. Manu hails from Alsace, and has a true love for dry whites, and was instrumental in defining the modern style of Jurançon sec. He also enjoys beer, which he makes on the side, along with a macerated style of Petit Manseng. It is clear that Manu is part of the family here, and Yvonne frequently credited him with much of their early success. Jean-Rene says, “Yvonne met lots of people through her work in Bordeaux who helped her develop the team when she started. She was lucky to meet many good people, people who were ready to help us– like Manu.”

Maxime Salharang, now of Clos Larryout, was the winemaker here for many years, before he finally found his own vineyards and struck out of his own. He now makes a somewhat different (but also delicious) style of Jurançon to Souch, but neither the Souch team nor Maxime see one another as competition. They continue an active exchange of ideas and Maxime credits Manu with much of his own development as a winemaker.

The uncontested mascot, and probable real master of the domaine is Lilou, a giant white Great Pyranees. Yvonne had a great fondness for the breed, often with two or three trailing her amongst the vines. Lilou is the sixth generation of these dogs raised on this land and she obviously delights in her reign.

Though there are plenty other animals around to pester Lilou, including four cats and a raft of ducks that have decided their saltwater swimming pool is an ideal refresher. Various deer, boars and foxes regularly emerge from the forest. While the various fauna nibbling on the grapes is a regular issue, Jean-René shrugs-off the challenge and takes pride in the quality of the domaine’s environment after three decades of biodynamic farming. “As soon as you return things to their natural environment, the animals find their place,” he says.

The Place

South West, France

The drive up to Domaine de Souch snakes up windy, steep, dusty roads, and despite being cleverly sign-posted, it’s still easy to miss. The estate is isolated on the top of a ridge, at 300+ meters of elevation, surrounded by forests and seemingly hiding in plain sight. The nearly 7 hectare main plot sits just across from the house and cellar, and is the source for almost all the wines.

The main Souch vineyard is a steep, south-facing amphitheatre, that descends from the house in a seemingly endless series of wide, stepped terraces of vines. These terraces were expensive to build and the area between the rows is wasted space, but were necessary to make the steep slopes accessible. Some lower portions which are not terraced provide a real challenge to maintain in this rainy climate.

Manu says, “When the unterraced vineyards are wet, when we go on them it is almost like surfing!”

The vines are split almost equally between Petit Manseng and Gros Manseng. During harvest, grapes are carefully differentiated based on vine age and small but also important differences in soil and weather conditions. This allows Souch to create remarkably different cuvées from the same parcel.

The vines mostly face south, and a turn slightly east revealing the iconic Pic du Midi d’Ossau in the distance. The soils are heavy, flinty red clay with lots of limestone, great for retaining water and giving freshness. There are also large calcareous poundinge stones, which reflect more heat and limit vine nutrition, but are also terribly hard on vineyard tools– broken blades are a common occurrence. The grass also holds onto the rocks and the soil, which traps moisture and prevents erosion on the steep slopes. While walking in the vineyards, there are obvious spots where the grass between the rows is less green, indicating poorer soils, and resulting in smaller, more concentrated grapes.

The terraced sites have what Manu calls different zones, “We plant a little here, and then a little there, just to have a different expression.” The most concentrated Gros Manseng comes from the bottom of the hill, and there are some recent plantings of Petit Manseng, now 3 years old, but a few more years are needed before they will produce a good crop.

Two sweet cuvées, Marie-Kattalin and Vendange Tardive, come from an additional parcel nearby, with full southern exposure and iron rich clay soils that produce a more intense Petit Manseng. There are also a two small plots of the historic local grapes Petit Courbu and Camaralet.

“We have acidity. We are PROUD of it. We want to harvest at just the right time so we can ENJOY it.” Yvonne

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The grapes are harvested late– usually mid October for dry wines and as late as December for the sweet wines– as they need the acidity to drop naturally, and still reflect the freshness of their terrain. All harvesting is done in one passage, and the grapes are manually separated for ripeness. Choosing a harvest date can be difficult– they pick according to what parcel is ready, and then take all at once, but the different grapes are often not in the same condition.

Sadly, in 2023 there was no harvest at all. Persistent rains meant they could not treat for mildew, as your organic treatments need dry hours after application to settle on the grapes. “We had huge rainstorms every 2 or 3 days, so there was just never a chance”, explains Manu. The entire crop was lost, and the domaine will sadly not be able to make a cuvée to honour the passing of it’s founder

Jean-René is hopeful that the 2024 vintage will be much better, but, like most of our producers, is increasingly concerned about climate change. The domaine has seen more extreme and frequent storms, large amounts of hail and early heat waves. “This February it was 25 degrees, usually should be max 17. Then a few weeks later it was freezing again. The grapes don’t know what to do,” says René.

Yet both Jean-René and Manu express endless enthusiasm for the region and the future of its wines. After more than three decades for Manu and a lifetime for Jean-René, a way of life that doesn’t include Domaine de Souch and the wines of Jurançon is simply unimaginable. Their efforts continue to result in delicious, complex wines that remain the benchmark for the region, and they are fiercely protecting Yvonne’s legacy. The only thing that seems to be missing are those farm-fresh eggs of Jean-René’s childhood, and perhaps another dog or two.