Louis Latour in Burgundy

The Latour family have long been established in Burgundy's wine trade. They began as vinegrowers in the village of Aloxe-Corton as early as 1768 and went on to establish today's business, Maison Louis Latour, in 1797. Today they are one of the region's most famous names creating wines from their own 50 hectare domaine in the Côte d'Or and from grapes and wines purchased through the negociant arm of the business.

The company has been in family ownership for 11 generations and is now led by the 7th Louis Latour. He is ably supported by Chief winemaker Jean Charles Thomas, and Denis Fetzmann and Boris Champy who run the Domaine.

Cooperage

Back in the 19th Century barrels were not only used as they are today, to age and ferment wine, but they were also the only way in which to ship wine. Bottles were usually too fragile and their weight increased transportation costs excessively.

Barrel making has been a time honoured tradition at Maison Louis Latour for more than half a century. It continues today with over 2000 barrels being made each year, half of which are exported to other wineries worldwide. The oak orginates from the Alliers and Vosges forrests of Northern France and ages outside for 30 months before being used to make a barrel. Barrels are made by craftsmen with staves being placed together and carefully shaped, by hand, info a barrel form before being toasted over an open fire. Chesnut hoops are traditionally placed around the barrel to protect it.

Louis Latour in the Ardèche and Var

Ardèche

Louis Latour introduced Chardonnay vines into the Ardèche in the late 1970s and has been producing Chardonnay wines since the 1980s using the same vinification techniques as in Burgundy. Previously Chardonnay was unknown in the Ardèche region and the Louis Latour team worked with over 300 local growers passing on knowledge learnt over generations in Burgundy encouraging quality by paying a higher price for healthy low yielding grapes.

Today Louis Latour have a modern winery with tasting room near the archaeological site of Alba la Romaine where winemaker Alain Berthon crafts the unoaked Ardèche Chardonnay and the oaked Grand Ardèche wines. More recently Louis Latour began to make wines with Viognier, a grape that has long been grown in the Ardèche region. The Duet is a wine that utilises both Chardonnay and Viognier producing a wine which capitalises on the elegance of the Chardonnay variety blended with the floral weight of Viognier. The Ardèche Viognier is a 100% varietal wine of which a proportion of the grapes undergo ageing in barrel.

Var

In the late 1980s, following on from the sucess of their white wines in the Ardèche, the Latour's set out to find an alternative location to grow Pinot Noir vines and make quality wines. They settled on a high altitude site by a former monastary in northern Provence, sitting at 500m above sea level in the Verdon hills. This high altitude location tempers the warm Provence summer days with cool nights and the benefits from the Mistral wind. Unlike the Ardèche where a partnership was forged with local growers, here the Latour's planted their own vineyards are created the Domaine de Valmoissine.