Winegrowers’ portraits Saint-Émilion
Jean-Luc Thunevin
The "garage wine" concept is the result of equal measures of luck, persistence and sheer willpower.
What was in store for this nine-year-old boy, the son of French parents born in Algeria, who emigrated to France in 1960? There's no knowing. Yet he was to invent a marketing concept that has made many winegrowers green with envy.
Jean-Luc and Murielle Thunevin.
Nothing about Jean-Luc Thunevin suggested that he might one day be involved in the wine world: neither his training at forestry school, nor his early years in the commercial banking sector, when he dreaded direct contact with customers. His shyness, keen sense of observation and pragmatism would enable him to envisage a future secured through stubborn persistence, but that would not be without financial worries. He wanted to be his own boss and an entrepreneur.
The turning point came in 1983, when he opened a shop in Saint-Émilion. He then worked as a wine merchant, and opened other shops, such as L'Essentiel, a wine shop in Rue Guadet. He likes to have fun and make people laugh, while remaining serious when it comes to business.
“You need a kind of fury to be creative and show your peers that you are part of the family,” he says.
He was born on Friday 13th, which may well be an auspicious date for someone intent on trying their luck, although fate did also require a helping hand. He and Murielle, his wife, business partner and accomplice, had the idea of making their own wine. From a few acres of land in Saint-Émilion, they produced a wine thanks to, quite literally, their remarkable skill: using their home, their garage, and all means available to them, and working extraordinarily hard... Now they are the talk of the international press, comments abound, and they are showered with praise for the quality of their wine.
“I like to go against the grain and I have a lot of imagination, which made up for our lack of resources, and experience in taste and wine in general. We were complete novices. Yet we did have great memories of drinking a 1955 Pétrus. We simply applied the techniques used by the great châteaus to 1.20 hectares of land and attempted to produce a wine we would enjoy.I have to admit that we were in the right place at the right time,” he explains with a lopsided grin, piercing eyes and use of the less formal “tu” that puts him on an even keel with whoever he is speaking to. He then added: “Our wine was and still is different. And being different never fails to foster controversy”. The “garage wine” concept was born, and Jean-Luc admits that he is proud to have shaken things up.
Ets Thunevin
BP 88 - 6 rue Guadet
33330 Saint-Émilion
Tél. : +33 (0) 5 57 55 09 13www.thunevin.com 
Jean-Luc Thunevin.
Since then, he has created
Virginie de Valandraud, and two properties in Pomerol and Lalande de Pomerol have been added to the enterprise:
Clos du Beau-Père and
Domaine des Sabines, not forgetting his
Bad Boy wine - Robert Parker's nickname for Jean-Luc - produced as a red wine under the Bordeaux appellation, and as a white Vin de France in Chardonnay, known as
Bad Girl in its sparkling version.
A quick search on the Internet and you can find the Bad Boy video clip made by Korean fans; and Valandraud in the Japanese manga comics The
Drops of God. Jean-Luc Thunevin could not be without Murielle: two master creators, now turned consultants, who, through commitment and a hint of luck, raised their
Valandraud wine to the rank of Saint-Émilion Premier Cru Classé in 2012, with a reasonable release price for this En
Primeurs vintage. Having started from scratch, without the benefit of an inheritance or any backing, that is a remarkable achievement and a far cry from the initial turmoil!
Florence Varaine
Photos Jean-Marc Koch
