| Region of Production: | Pauillac AOC |
| Year Established: | 1331 |
| Classification: | Premier Grand Cru Classé, Médoc 1855 |
Vineyard Holdings
78 ha (including the 47-ha L’Enclos, the 4-ha La Pinada, the 15-ha Petit Batailley, and other parcels)
- 80% Cabernet Sauvignon
- 18% Merlot
- 2% Cabernet Franc (not being replanted)
- 2% Petit Verdot
Top Wines Produced & Inaugural Vintages
- Château Latour
- Les Forts de Latour: The second wine is produced from plots outside the L’Enclos and young vines from within L’Enclos. Inaugural vintage 1966
- Le Pauillac de Château Latour: The third wine is produced from wines that do not meet selection criteria for Les Forts. Inaugural vintage 1973
Average Total Production
- 380,000 bottles
Summary
Latour (“the tower”) appears as early as 1331, when Gaucelme de Castillon received royal authorization to build the Tower of Saint-Maubert. The tower guarded the Gironde in the ensuing Hundred Years’ War, but it was soon seized by Anglo-Gascon troops and remained under English control until 1453. Once returned, the original tower was destroyed. By the early 17th century, owner Arnaud de Mullet reorganized the estate’s farms (and extensive vineyards) and commissioned a new tower, the iconic dovecote that appears on the label today.
In the late 1600s Marie-Thérèse de Clauzel took possession of the estate and married the owner of Château Lafite-Rothschild, Alexandre de Ségur in 1695. From 1695 through 1755 the two great châteaux were thus united in ownership. While ownership of Château Latour began to splinter in the latter 1700s, descendants of the Ségur family nonetheless maintained sole control over the property until 1962. By that year, however, there were so many minor shareholders (Ségurs, all) that sale was inevitable, and a British financial group purchased a majority stake. Château Latour remained in English hands until 1993, when a French billionaire named François Pinault acquired 93% of the company. The Ségur family retains the remainder.
Château Latour was ranked directly behind Château Lafite-Rothschild in 1855. In 1863 the château began bottling some of its wines on the property (though it did not fully convert to the practice until the 1930s). The pride of the property is L’Enclos, a 47-ha vineyard immediately surrounding the tower and château. It crowns a 16-meter-high croupe of gravel and is the primary source for the Château Latour grand vin.
In 2012 company president Frédéric Engerer made the surprising announcement to end Latour’s participation in Bordeaux’s en primeur tastings, preferring instead to release and sell wines “when they start to be ready to drink.”
Style & Vinification Techniques
Château Latour produces the quintessentially powerful and long-lived style of Médoc Cabernet Sauvignon. The top wine typically contains at least 85% of the grape, harvested from vines with an average age of 50 years. After meticulous sorting in the vineyard and winery, fermentation takes place in conical stainless steel tanks; maceration typically lasts around four weeks. Malolactic fermentation also occurs in tank, prior to a 20-22 month élevage in 80-100% new wood. (Les Forts de Latour receives only 50% new wood, and typically the blend for the second wine includes up to 30% Merlot.) A light fining with egg white occurs in barrel, but the wines have not been filtered since 2000.
Producer Website: Château Latour