An Aussie Winemaker in France

Filed in archive Australian Wines on March 13, 2007

While France has probably one of the longest wine making traditions in just about the world, Australia has been catching up, and that includes finding different ways to do the same thing - make great wine. One Australian wine maker took it a step further and planted himself and his winery right in the heart of sauvignon blanc country.

This is a funny tale from Pitched battles:

IN THE town of Bourre in the Loire Valley, I suspect the inhabitants, at least the winemaking ones, have a special place in their hearts for the Scottish-born London hotelier David Levin.

That this special place might also be reserved for tax collectors and wine inspectors shouldn't surprise anyone who has heard the Levin story, including the 60-something, bespectacled, erudite man at the centre of all of the action.

By his own account, he is a "black-and-white" kind of guy.

There is a right way, a wrong way and no shade of grey. Which helps explains why Levin plonked an entire Australian winery, complete with an Australian-trained French winemaker, among his neighbours of Bourre in 2003.

Actually the town's winegrowers, members of the local co-operative winery, would have had an inkling something was afoot. There had been words, apparently quite a few, between them and Levin over the years since his purchase of a Bourre vineyard in 1985.

All Levin wanted to do was make good sauvignon blanc, one of the great whites of the Touraine region of the Loire Valley. All the co-op members wanted was to make it according to tradition. Later, when he visited three local builders with his plans to construct a winery, they too wanted to do it their way.