Château La Tour Blanche

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A small bottle from 1990

The Château La Tour Blanche winery is located in the commune of Bommes , part of the Sauternes appellation in the Bordeaux wine-growing region . In the Bordeaux wine classification of 1855 , it was classified as "Premier Cru Classé" and then ranked second behind Château d'Yquem . The 70  hectare estate has 40 hectares of vineyards and extensive poplar and pine stands. The area slopes down to the west towards the Ciron River .

Of the 40 hectares of vineyards, 36 hectares are approved for the AOC Sauternes appellation and 4 hectares for red wine . The grape varieties are divided into 82% Sémillon , 12% Sauvignon Blanc and 6% Muscadelle . The grapes are picked by hand in five to six readings in order to select the noble rotten berries. The wine is aged in new barriques for 20–24 months . Around 40,000 bottles are marketed annually.

In 1992, 1993 and 2000 no wine was bottled because it did not meet the quality standard of the estate.

The second wine is called Les Charmilles de Tour Blanche . In addition, wines with the names Isis , Osiris and the red wine Cru du Cinquet are marketed.

In 2008, in addition to Château La Tour Blanche, 16 wineries in Bordeaux, including such well-known as Château d'Yquem , Château Olivier and Château Suduiraut, joined forces in a joint project with the aim of raising their own clones when the vines were becoming scarcer.

history

In the last quarter of the 18th century the manor was founded by Mr. Latour Blanche, who gave the manor his name and also had the manor house that is still known today built. Because of the French Revolution , the winery was transferred to Pierre Pécherie. According to legend, it was the first winery in Sauternes to produce noble sweet wines before the Château d'Yquem . The then German-born owner Frederic Focke, who acquired the estate in 1815, is said to have experimented with the process of picking berries from 1836, as he knew it from the large plants on the Rhine. Hardy Rodenstock's famous wine tastings in 1985 and 1987 suggested that the 1784 vintages and probably the 1747 vintage of Château d'Yquem were noble sweet wines. However, the authenticity of these bottles has been questioned. From 1862 the estate was managed by Fockes heir Maître de Bordeaux and his business partner Mermann, a wine merchant.

The later owner Daniel Iffla , also called Osiris (this name is still on the label today), bequeathed the winery to the French state in 1909 on the condition that the state set up a viticulture college on this site, the École de Viticulture et d'Œnologie de la Tour Blanche built. The estate is still under the administration of the Ministry of Agriculture.

literature

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Jane Anson: Bordeaux: Semillon shortage threatens future vintages. ( Memento of April 14, 2008 in the Internet Archive ) Decanter.com, April 8, 2008.
  2. ^ Benjamin Wallace: The Billionaire's vinegar: the mystery of the world's most expensive bottle of wine . ISBN 978-0-307-33877-8