Sara Lecompte Cuvelier swore she would never work in wine. Then in 2018, she became Managing Director of one of the five Second Grand Cru Classé estates in Saint-Julien. Her sister Anne had already been there for thirteen years, building something from nothing. That is the story of Château Léoville Poyferré — and neither of them planned any of it.

In this episode of Read Between the Wines, Pierre Ferland sits down with Sara and Anne Cuvelier at Château Léoville Poyferré in Saint-Julien, Bordeaux, France, for the first of a two-part conversation. The Cuvelier family has been in wine since 1804, beginning as négociants near Lille in the north of France, acquiring Léoville Poyferré in 1920, and extending the family story all the way to the foot of the Andes in Mendoza with Cuvelier Los Andes in 2003.

The conversation covers what it means to inherit something you did not build. The demi-wolf on the label that belonged to the Lawton family and was kept without question. The family motto borrowed from Le Petit Prince: the essential is invisible to the eye. Anne building wine tourism at a classified growth estate before Bordeaux believed that was possible. Sara arriving with a background in human resources and discovering it was exactly what the job required.

And the word Sara says you need to remember about this estate. Not prestige. Not history. Precision.

Part two, where Sara and Anne go deep into the vineyard, the wines, and what Bordeaux still needs to say out loud, is available exclusively at readbetweenthewines.com.

Featuring: Château Léoville Poyferré, Saint-Julien, Médoc, Bordeaux, France, Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, Second Grand Cru Classé.