From Franz Aregger
, at 07. March 2013 14:30
This year, for our series ‘Brane seen through the eye and lens of…’, Henri Lurton has invited the photographer François Poincet, winner of the Terroir d’Images Contest in 2011 and well-known in the wine industry for his photographic contributions to the Wine Spectator, Decanter or Vigneron magazines. Particularly pleased to be solicited for this project, François agreed to give HIS own vision of Brane-Cantenac, an original vision indeed, since he chose to pay homage to all those men and women who are usually invisible while contributing daily to the production of a great wine. “I really wanted to do something different, less conventional and out of the beaten track without the earnestness of the wine and vine world” François told us. “And I really enjoyed very much taking these pictures because I had to push the people to their limits and extract the positive aspect of their personality. I aimed at looking at the work in the vine or in the vat room from an opposite angle, with humor, letting the people express themselves fully, while bringing out the love they have for their jobs. In the beginning, they were a bit bashful, but with the help of the ‘word of mouth’, it caught on and they participated naturally investing themselves into the project with lots of enthusiasm. On the third day, I was able to capture the best moments because I did not take myself seriously either and everyone involved let go, playing with the lens freely. The introverts remained introverted, the extroverts extroverted and it shows on each snapshot, however I managed to have them ‘drop their masks’ pushing the shyest ones around so that they finally expressed themselves. As a result, those photo sessions became like a real break for everyone.
I adhered to this project with great pleasure because for the last 3 years Brane has honored our work Before me, two excellent photographers had been selected, Patrick Durand and Eric Boissenot. I had to do something different! The château and its staff appealed to me for their friendliness and most importantly, the managing team supported me 100% in this endeavor, giving me carte blanche on the one hand, and all the means to shoot in optimum conditions. Everyone was involved and as a result, the enthusiasm spread around. I felt a sense of belonging to the staff, which by the way is yet to see the pictures. My greatest pleasure was the selection process, more so than the shooting itself, because I was under a lot of stress during the sessions. This experience for me was a very beautiful human adventure”.
The pictures of François Poincet will be on display at Château Brane-Cantenac from April 10 2013 through April 1 2014. Drawing their inspiration from Richard Avedon’s black and white portraits, with lots of light, and by having deliberately chosen to be strikingly different, they are totally opposed to the stiff, carefully studied Harcourt’s portraits. With a lot of humor, François Poincet brings out a side of Brane’s daily life that is rarely revealed where wine and vine give way to the men and women of the winery.
Château Brane-Cantenac is a Margaux second classified growth and has belonged to Henri Lurton since 1992. Enjoying an impeccable reputation, its vineyard covers 75 hectares (185 acres) divided up into several plots, the largest of which is the finest deep-gravel mound in the appellation. At Brane, Henri Lurton has taken from tradition all that is alive, and has selected among modern techniques those which are suited to a natural and gentle handling of the grapes. His aim is to make the best possible wine each year, bringing out the great terroir in which it is produced. Château Brane-Cantenac also produces a second wine of very high quality, Baron de Brane, and Château Notton.
François Poincet , the sensor of terroirs !
Biography by Sylvie Bonin
If it is true that happiness is a childhood dream come to life at an adult age, then Francois Poincet is a happy man! At the age of 8, he was holding his Instamatic Kodak camera the same way other kids used their fake cowboy guns. But one has to find the means to live up to one’s dreams. That’s what he’s done: after graduating from high school and completing his military service, he left the region of Paris where he was born in 1953 to study photography in Toulouse for three years. Then he took a great variety of jobs, all as varied as educational, ranging from color processing in photo labs to taking medical shots at the office of an eye doctor. He started his career as a reporter and a photographer for the daily Toulouse Matin in 1980, and a year later joined Sygma agency, where he worked for 15 years as its correspondent for the South of France.
In 1994, he created Occitmedia Agency in Toulouse, working with many weekly magazines such as Le Point, l’Express, Le Nouvel Observateur, Paris-Match or VSD. In 1996, he moved to Bordeaux and specialized in topics related to the vineyard and the wine. Due to the quality of his photo reports as well as his human touch, François became THE photographer of the whole Bordeaux region. He now works for most of the specialized wine press in France: RVF, Planet Vins et Spiritueux, 3 Etoiles, Vigneron and abroad, Cookhand (South Korea), Decanter (UK), The Wine Spectator (USA – 6 covers and 400 articles to date) Der Feinschmecker (Germany). Jointly, Francois also works for local institutions such as the Gironde and Bordeaux Tourist Offices, the Bordeaux Harbor and the CIVB. His passion for the vineyards and his excellent knowledge of the terroir naturally led him to get assignments from the most prestigious wineries such as the châteaux Cheval Blanc, Haut-Brion, Guiraud, Lafite Rothschild, Margaux, Dauzac, Léoville Las Cases, Pontet Canet, to only name a few, and contribute to enhancing their image. Not to mention Château Brane-Cantenac which, this year, has invited him to shoot portraits of the men and women of the winery with humor and humanity.
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