Domaine de Souch says goodbye to Yvonne Hégoburu

This determined little woman of more than 95 years was undoubtedly a great lady of wine with an amazing, almost surreal career. This emblematic figure of Jurançon, retired in the last years of her life from the Souch estate, had begun her career as a viticulturist at the age of 60. With a frank smile and a strong will, she turned to wine at a time when others were retiring. With her husband René, a local journalist, she fell in love in the early 1980s with a small property in Laroin, 300 meters above sea level and a few kilometers from their home in Pau, with an impressive view of the Pyrenees and the Pic du Midi d’Ossau. They had decided to plant vineyards there, but her husband did not want to see her dream come true. Yvonne decided to carry out the project alone. With the help of his son Jean-René, he cleared and planted six and a half hectares of native grape varieties, petit and gros manseng, petit courbu, on these slopes of clay-calcareous soils and steep slopes that could not be mechanized, in the midst of about twenty hectares of forest and meadows. She borrowed money to build a winery and produced the first real vintage of hers in 1990 with the help of two young winemakers, Emmanuel Jecker and Maxime Salharang (the latter created Clos Larrouyat in 2011, also in Jurançon).
She quickly decided to convert her vineyard to organic and then biodynamic viticulture at a time when the idea was hardly fashionable, especially in the rainy skies of Béarn. She was a pioneer in the region thanks to the advice of Paul Barre, viticulturist of Canon-Fronsac.
The estate quickly acquired a good reputation for its dry and, above all, sweet, delicate and fresh wines. She even gained additional notoriety by appearing in Jonathan Nossiter’s controversial film Mondovino. Like any good self-taught, Yvonne has never stopped passing on her knowledge and promoting viticulturists younger than her. Supported by cellar master Emmanuel Jecker, who came to the property more than 30 years ago, Souch has been run in recent years by her son.