Louis Latour Agencies
Producers
Louis Latour
About
Louis Latour in Burgundy
The Latour family are long established in Burgundy's wine trade. They began as vine growers in the village of Aloxe-Corton as early as 1760s 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. They also produce all their own barrels at their small, traditional cooperage in Savigny-Lès-Beaune.
The company has been in family ownership for 12 generations and is now led by Eléonore Latour. She is ably supported by head winemaker Jean Charles Thomas and domaine director Christophe Deola.
Louis Latour outside Burgundy
Ardèche
Since the early 1980s Maison Louis Latour has made white wines in the Ardèche, a region located in the southern Rhône Valley. It was their first foray outside of Burgundy and an exciting project. Knowing that Burgundian grape prices would only continue to rise they sought an alternative area where they could produce affordable, high quality Chardonnay wines. The Ardèche was far from the obvious place to go and a bold move in the 1970s but they recognised the region’s potential and began to invest and work closely with growers helping to establish Chardonnay vines and passing on their knowledge gained over many generations. In return for healthy, high quality grapes and lower yields they paid a premium price to the growers.
Today Louis Latour have a modern winery with tasting room near the archaeological site of Alba la Romaine where winemaker Marion Bosquet crafts the unoaked Ardèche Chardonnay and the oaked Grand Ardèche wines. Later Louis Latour began to make wines with Viognier, a grape that has long been grown in the region. Both Duet, a co-fermented blend of Chardonnay and Viognier and a Viognier are available.
Var
In the late 1980s, following from the success of their Ardèche project, Latour set out to find an alternative location to grow Pinot Noir. They settled on a high altitude site by a former monastery in northern Provence, sitting at 500m above sea level in the Verdon Hills. Pinot Noir was not known to grow successfully in the high temperatures of Southern France but the high altitude location helped to temper the warm Provence summer days and brought cool nights and the benefits of the Mistral wind. Unlike the Ardèche where a partnership was forged with local growers, Latour planted their own vineyards and created Domaine de Valmoissine.
Les Pierres Dorees
Located 40 kilometres north-west of Lyon, the Pièrres Dorées lies on undulating hillsides amongst 39 villages. The area’s name comes from the golden ochre coloured stone that is visible throughout the landscape which is formed from crinoidal limestone (marine fossils from the starfish family) and tinted by iron oxide which gives it the ochre colour. Maison Louis Latour first began to explore Les Pierres Dorées region in 2010, they soon discovered its potential, including a small old vineyard that had been planted in the 1970s, and began to purchase land, recuperate existing vines and plant young vines in 2012. Today it has 25 hectares across two parcels, one in the village of Morancé and the other in Theizé. 2015 is the first vintage to be released.