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Chateau Latour

1855 First Growths Grand Cru Classes

Latour

1855 First Growths Grand Cru Classes

Château Latour has played an important role in the region's history. Knowledge of the past is valuable in helping us to understand the property's current reputation. Fortunately, numerous archives have been preserved over the centuries enabling us to establish an accurate picture of the past. This unique heritage shows us an extraordinary stability and continuity in the life of the property and those who have worked there during its long history, which has no doubt been an important factor in the exceptional regularity and quality of the wines.

The oldest document mentioning Latour dates from 1331 and is an authorization granted to Gaucelme de Castillon by Lord Pons to build a fortified tower in the parish of Saint Maubert. Château Latour then appears in the Jean Froissart's « Chronicles » in 1378. This was the time of the Hundred Years War and the « Tour de Saint Maubert » was a fortress to guard the estuary, manned by Breton soldiers for the King of France. After a three-day siege, the Anglo-Gascon army seized the fortress and installed a garrison.

Les Forts de Latour 拉圖副牌

Latour was a jointly held lord's domain until the end of the 16th century, whose co-owners received rents from the farmers who cultivated the land. At that time, the property was not entirely covered by vines and yet production largely exceeded requirements. There was no proper storage for the wine and it had to be drunk within the year. The estate remained in the hands of the Mullet family until the late 17th century, and while direct use of the land gradually replaced the leasing system, the wine-making situation changed very little.
As a result of successive marriages and inheritances, Château Latour became the property of Alexandre de Ségur, who quickly acquired a considerable collection of properties in the Médoc. The château's real wine history began with the arrival of this family. Just before his death in 1716, Alexandre de Ségur acquired Château Lafite. His son, Nicolas-Alexandre, was dubbed the « Prince of the Vines » by Louis XV. President of the Parliament of Bordeaux, he further enlarged the family's estates in 1718 with the acquisition of plots from Mouton and Calon.

In the early 18th century, England's aristocracy and wealthy middle classes developed refined tastes, particularly for wine, from Bordeaux, Oporto, Jerez and other southern vineyards. Wine exports had been restricted by various blockades imposed by the wars, but now enjoyed a period of relative freedom and trade with Bordeaux grew rapidly. This new economic environment also changed the structure of the Médoc estates which expanded and became of increasing interest to the local bourgeoisie and the parliamentary nobility. Very quickly, the wines of the best estates, including Château Latour, stood out in terms of quality and price. In 1714, a barrel of Latour was worth four to five times more than a barrel of typical Bordeaux wine. By 1729, the ratio had risen to thirteen and by 1767 to twenty. Recognition of Château Latour was already very well-established.

As a result of this flourishing trade, the estate gradually came to specialise in wine production, with 38 hectares of vines in 1759 and then 47 hectares by 1794. Remarkably detailed records of this period are available, kept by the estate’s stewards, who regularly corresponded with the owners; there is also a wealth of often highly entertaining anecdotes about life at Château Latour.

During the revolution the estate was prevented, with some difficulty, from being broken up, and, most importantly, stayed in the same family. By 1842, successive inheritances had increased the number of co-owners, who formed a Société Civile (a non-trading company), which, until 1962, was made up exclusively of descendants of the Ségur family. The property thus benefited from a quite exceptional location and the unique terroir was given « first growth » or « premier cru » ranking in the official 1855 classification, alongside Lafite-Rothschild, Margaux, Haut-Brion and, since 1973, Mouton-Rothschild. However, over time, the large number of heirs resulted in the sale of most of the shares: the English financial group Pearson became the majority shareholder with 53% and Harveys of Bristol, which was subsequently bought by the Allied Lyons group, acquired a 25% stake. In 1989, Allied Lyons bought out Pearson to hold 93% of the shares, with the other 7% remaining in the Ségur family. In June 1993, Mr François Pinault bought the Allied Lyons' stake via his holding company Artémis.

In the years since 1993, under the leadership of François Pinault, significant changes have been made with a view to upholding Château Latour's pursuit of excellence in the wines that it produces.
In 1998, Frédéric Engerer, who joined the estate early in 1995, was appointed Manager. Major works started in November 1999 and continued until September 2003. A total renovation of the winery, vat room, wine making facilities and storage areas enabled even greater precision in the production of the wines. A new technical team was also created. In 2012, we undertook further work to enlarge the workspace and create a new ageing cellar, following the decision to no longer sell the Château’s wines en primeur.

The vat room is literally bubbling with activity during the production of the wines. The winery team monitors every vat and every barrel on a daily basis, sampling, tasting and analysing. Respect for the fruit is essential and we take every possible precaution to ensure that it is treated with the care that is required to produce great wines. The vat room was fully renovated in 2001.

It now consists of more than 80 stainless steel vats of various sizes (from 164 hl to 12 hl) enabling grapes with the same profile to be vinified together and for all the experiments to be carried out with the precision necessary for a better understanding of the subtleties of the terroir.

Château Latour was one of the first Bordeaux properties to adopt stainless steel tanks for vinification in the 1960s.

The harvest is destemmed and pressed as soon as it arrives in the vat room, and then transferred to stainless steel fermentation vats on the basis of several criteria: grape variety, the age of the vines, the historical context, the soil study of the vineyard and tasting of the berries, enabling the creation of batches with complementary, harmonious qualities. The young wine remains in temperature-controlled vats for about three weeks: enough time to extract all the flavours and potential treasures contained in the grapes.

After running-off, in which the wine is separated from the solids or marc (essentially all the grape skins and seeds) and transferred into clean vats or barrels, a second fermentation - known as malolactic fermentation - takes place during the following month. During this stage, the wine softens, developing roundness and precision. Meanwhile, the marc is pressed and the resulting press wine is matured separately in barrels, pending the blending stage.

Once malolactic fermentation has been completed (between the end of November and January), the wine can then be transferred to barrels to start the maturing process. This is the time when the fascinating and crucial stage of the pre-blending tastings begins.

The art of blending is a thrilling phase in the production of the wines, consisting of separating, testing, comparing, and, finally, combining the wines. The senses, memory, rigour and imagination must all be used in perfect harmony to create a style, an impression, while remaining faithful to a personality. The structure, energy and complexity of the wines develops and settles during maturing.

Frédéric Engerer and the technical team, assisted by Eric Boissenot meet regularly from mid-January to taste all the batches of the wines that have been produced. A wide range of wines is analysed to determine the best blend that will be used to make Château Latour’s Grand Vin. The blend is then decided for Les Forts de Latour and finally for the Pauillac. It is also at this point that some of the « press wines » are reincorporated, depending on their quality and the vintage's overall balance.

The wine is matured uniquely in French oak barrels from the forests of central France. The barrels are renewed every year for the Grand Vin.

The wine stays in the barrel cellar for the first year until the beginning of the summer following the harvest. During the early months, rather than being hermetically sealed, the barrels are loosely stopped with a glass bung to facilitate a very slow exchange of gases between the wine and the atmosphere.. The level of the wine in the barrel gradually goes down due to absorption by the wood and evaporation; the barrels are topped up twice a week in an operation called ouillage.

Before the arrival of the summer heat, the barrels are taken down to the second-year cellar for a further maturing period of ten to thirteen months. There the wine can continue to age in hermetically sealed barrels (placed with the bungs on the side) protected from any variations in temperature.

A year after it has been put in barrels, the wine is clarified using egg white, with one to six egg whites per barrel, depending on the wine and the vintage. This very old technique enables any particles still in suspension in the wine to be drawn down to the bottom of the barrel and removed. A final racking about 45 days after this fining separates the bright, clear wine from the lees.

The wine is tasted to determine when it should be bottled: it has to have lost the generous vigour of its early youth while retaining its finesse and substance, but should not have begun to « dry out » (a deterioration in the wine which is caused by too much time in the barrel).

Latour 拉圖出品有以下酒款：

Chateau Latour Pauillac

Château Latour’s Grand Vin is made exclusively from “vieilles vignes”, an average of 60 years-old, in the Enclos. Gravettes, Sarmentier, Pièce de Château... these are the names of some of the finest plots that express the character of the terroir and forge the wine’s identity every year.

Les Forts de Latour Pauillac

Les Forts de Latour takes its name from an historic plot in the « Enclos ». The wine was first labelled with this name in 1966 and constant work on developing its quality has resulted in its achieving the level of a Médoc Grand Cru Classé.

Pauillac de Chateau Latour Pauillac

This wine has been made every year since 1989, and was developed primarily for the restaurant market.

Chateau Latour

1855 First Growths Grand Cru Classes

Latour

1855 First Growths Grand Cru Classes

Latour 拉圖出品有以下酒款：

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