Château Latour
The Château Latour in Pauillac near Bordeaux is one of the most famous wineries in the world.
location
Château Latour is located in the extreme southeast of the municipality of Pauillac in the suburb of St. Lambert on the border with Saint-Julien , in the Médoc region northwest of Bordeaux. The Gironde estuary is only about three hundred meters to the east . The Château Latour can be found approx. 400 m west of the "Route du Vin", from the departmental road no. 2 in the neighborhood of the Château Pichon-Longueville-Comtesse de Lalande .
Wines
The vineyard area is 65 hectares; it is planted 75% with Cabernet Sauvignon , 20% with Merlot , 4% with Cabernet Franc and 1% with Petit Verdot . The winery produces three types of wines, all of them red wines. In addition to its world-famous 'Grand Vin de Château Latour', it has been producing the second wine 'Les Forts de Latour' since 1966 , and a third wine since 1990, which is simply called 'Pauillac' or 'Pauillac de Latour'. The Grand Vin generally has 75% Cabernet Sauvignon, 20% Merlot, 4% Cabernet Franc and 1% Petit Verdot.
Château Latour was accompanied and advised by the oenologist Jacques Boissenot (1938-2014) and his son Eric.
Vintages
According to the manufacturer, the best vintages of Château Latour are 1945, 1959, 1961, 1982, 1989, 1990, 1996, 2000, 2003 and 2005.
The wines from 1996 (as of 2007) are still far too young to be consumed and should ideally be stored for maximum enjoyment.
The best wine of the past 50 years was the 1961 vintage , of which a bottle often fetched over 1,700 euros at auctions (2007). The wines of the 1982 vintages (approx. 800 euros), 1990 (approx. 600 euros, as of 2007) and 1996 (approx. 500 euros) are also excellent. The wines from 2000 and 2003, which are far too young, are also extremely promising. The stock market price in London for the wine from the exceptional year 2005 is between 1,050 and 1,100 euros (as of the beginning of 2008), with subscription costs of 600 euros at the beginning of 2006 . the young wine has almost doubled its value after less than two years.
Latour has a long reputation for top quality wine. The best wines were awarded 98 to 100 Parker points by the wine critic Robert Parker : the vintages 1899 ( wine evaluation : 98 PP), 1928 (100 PP), 1949 (98 PP), 1961 (100 PP), 1970 (98 PP ), 1982 (100 PP), 1996 (99 PP), 2000 (98+ PP) and 2003 (100 PP).
Latour wine is generally considered to be very powerful. Compared to other Bordeaux wines, it needs a long cellar maturation before its outstanding potential unfolds.
history
The land of Latour has been cultivated since at least the early 14th century. In the late 14th century, a fortified structure was built 300 meters from the Gironde estuary in order to be able to defend the estuary against attacks in the " Hundred Years War ". The fortress tower, La Tour en Saint-Maubert, gave the name of this winery around the fortress. All of this was in English possession until the Treaty of Castillon in 1453.
The original tower no longer exists, but a round tower named La Tour de Saint-Lambert was built on the estate around 1620. And since the newer tower with its round dome is more of a dovecote, the image of the old tower continues to serve as a trademark of the winery.
Although viticulture has existed here since at least the 14th century, the history of Latour as one of the best wineries on earth didn't begin until the late 17th century when the heir Alexandre de Ségur added Château Lafite to his possession in 1716. In 1718, his son Nicolas-Alexandre de Ségur expanded the property by buying Château Mouton and Château Calon , and began producing wines of great quality. In a letter dated May 24, 1787, Thomas Jefferson certifies the wines the rank of premier cru.
Although the estate ranked behind Château Lafite in terms of appreciation, the wines from Latour gained in stature and around 1800 were twenty times as expensive as normal Bordeaux wine. The classification of the estate as one of the four Premier Cru estates, which took place in 1855, ensured continued success. The current castle building was built in 1860.
In 1963, the estate came from the possession of the Ségur family when heirs sold a 75% stake to the British companies Harveys of Bristol and the Pearson group. In 1989, Allied Lyons bought the estate for the equivalent of around 180 million euros. It came back into French ownership in 1993 when businessman François Pinault bought it for around 130 million euros.
Due to its status as a Premier Cru estate, Château Latour is now subject to a legal restriction. The property may not be sold to foreigners as a “national cultural asset”. Any potential purchaser must be French.
The great vintages of Latour are famous for their longevity, but also require a significantly longer time to mature than other great red wines. The winery is also known for its reliability to be able to produce great wines even in smaller years when other wineries only bring in comparatively unsatisfactory wine. Latour was also the first estate among the Premier Crus to begin modernizing its entire production by replacing the old oak fermentation vats with stainless steel tanks as early as the 1960s.
Owners, classification, strategies
The estate is owned by the French billionaire François Pinault .
In the evaluation of the Bordeaux wineries on the occasion of the World Exhibition in Paris in 1855, Latour's outstanding position was crowned with the rank of Premier Cru Classé . This evaluation was carried out along the long-term ranking lists in trade circles according to the achievable sales prices of the wines. Apart from Latour in Pauillac , only the wineries Château Lafite-Rothschild in the same place, Château Haut-Brion in Pessac, and Château Margaux were found in the official classification of 1855 as Premier Cru wineries. In 1973, the upgraded Château Mouton-Rothschild was added as a fifth estate .
The Château Latour is part of the luxury goods group PPR (Pinault-Printemps-Redoute), which includes brands such as Gucci and Puma and, until recently, the famous department store chain Les Printemps in Paris. The owners, father Francois and son Francois-Henri Pinault, are among the ten wealthiest people in France and are in competition with their competitors. B. the luxury goods group LVMH , whose boss Bernard Arnault is the owner of other renowned wineries such as Château d'Yquem and Château Cheval Blanc .
Latour's marketing is highly professional: instead of having already sold large batches of wine not yet drunk to the middleman and thus no longer participating in any future increases in the value of the wine, the château stiffened on an extreme shortage of the so-called courtiers . The Château still has 40% of the wine from 2005 in its own stocks as of November 2007. With 300,000 bottles of " Grand Vins " being produced, around 120,000 bottles (at 1,050 euros each) are still available for the owner group PPR (Pinault-Printemps-Redoute), an amount well over 100 million euros from the harvest of a single year , in addition to the already completed sale of 60% of the wine to the intermediate trade of the courtiers.
Latour grows a “ second wine ” perceived as “Les Forts de Latour”, which does not, however, correspond to the classic second wine concept, not from z. B. comes from younger vineyards or from (for the first wine) discarded parts, but which is grown on separate areas within the same AOC Pauillac.
The yields of young plants go to the third wine called "Pauillac de Latour". Young plants do not stand on separate areas, but in the middle of the huge walled vineyard (“L'Enclos”). Every sick or too old vine is taken out individually in the l'Enclos and replaced with a young plant. In the area there are also isolated plants that are more than 100 years old. This type of vineyard care is unusually complex, even for a Premier Cru estate. The chateau, on the other hand, has a reputation for producing exceptionally good wines even in moderate years.
Awards
- The 1990 wine from Château Latour was named Wine of the Year 1993 by Wine Spectator magazine.
Trivia
- In the animated film Ratatouille , after he suspected Linguini's secret that it was not Linguini himself but a rat (Rémy) behind his cooking skills, the vicious chef Skinner tries to get the young chef to talk by enjoying a bottle of Chateau Latour in 1961 .
- In the game Return to Castle Wolfenstein the player can find bottles of 1938 Latour with which he can restore his health.
credentials
- ↑ Château Latour ( Memento of the original of February 4, 2007 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
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^ Memoir, Correspondence, And Miscellanies, From The Papers Of Thomas Jefferson, Gutenberg Project
“Of red wines, there are four vineyards of the first quality; viz. 1. Chateau Margau, belonging to the Marquis d'Agincourt, who makes about one hundred and fifty tons, of one thousand bottles each. He has engaged to Jernon, a merchant. 2. La Tour de Segur , en Saint Lambert, belonging to Monsieur Miresmenil, who makes one hundred and twenty-five tons. 3. Hautbrion, belonging to two thirds to M. le Comte de Femelle, who has engaged to Barton, a merchant: the other third to the Comte de Toulouse, at Toulouse. The whole is seventy-five tons. 4. Chateau de la Fite, belonging to the President Pichard, at Bordeaux, who makes one hundred and seventy-five tons. The wines of the three first, are not in perfection till four years old: those of de la Fite, being somewhat lighter, are good at three years; that is, the crop of 1786 is good in the spring of 1789. These growths, of the year 1783, sell now at two thousand livres the ton; those of 1784, on account of the superior quality of that vintage, sell at twenty-four hundred livres; those of 1785, at eighteen hundred livres; those of 1786, at eighteen hundred livres, though they had sold at first for only fifteen hundred livres. Red wines of the second quality, are Rozan, Dabbadie or Lionville, la Rose, Qui-rouen, Durfort; in all eight hundred tons, which sell at one thousand livres, new. The third class, are Galons, Mouton, Gassie, Arboete, Pontette, de Ferme, Candale; in all two thousand tons, at eight or nine hundred livres. After these, they are reckoned common wines, and sell from five hundred livres, down to one hundred and twenty livres, the ton. All red wines decline after a certain age, losing color, flavor, and body. Those of Bordeaux begin to decline at about seven years old. "
- Thomas Jefferson - ↑ 1938 Latour . In: Wolfenstein Wiki . ( wikia.com [accessed February 15, 2018]).
Web links
- Official website of Château Latour
- Very informative website from Medoc-wines.com (German, French, English)
Coordinates: 45 ° 10 ′ 37.6 ″ N , 0 ° 44 ′ 39.1 ″ W.