Château Latour à Pomerol

The château

Latour à Pomerol takes its name from the tower of its château, and its first recorded owners were already selecting. Charles Cocks and Édouard Féret, whose Bordeaux et ses vins was the reference book of the Bordeaux trade, first list La Tour-Pomerol in 1893, among the 2es crus of Pomerol under Garitey, at 10 tonneaux (the old Bordeaux measure of a crop, 900 liters, or 4 barrels). By Féret’s Saint-Émilion et ses vins of 1908 it had become a 1er cru classé, and the notice explains how: Louis Garitey’s pieces of vines stood on rises of strong gravel over clay, in the middle of the best growths of Pomerol, and to give his cru the qualities of a first growth he set aside the wine of the young vines and the lesser rises for a 2e cru of its own, the cru de Feytit.

Mme Loubat, who also owned Petrus, bought the estate in 1917; in 1922 Château La Tour-Pomerol stood as a 1er cru classé under E. Loubat-Garitey, at 15 tonneaux. Établissements Jean-Pierre Moueix farmed the vineyard from 1962 to 2023 and took full ownership in 2024.

The 8 hectares are two thirds deep gravel and clay and one third clay and loam: gravel and clay in a parcel next to the church of Pomerol, loam around the château. The vineyard is planted wholly to Merlot, 25 years old on average, and certified Haute Valeur Environnementale (High Environmental Value, the French state’s environmental certification for farms) at level 3. The vines are leaf-thinned and green-harvested, the grapes picked by hand, sorted by hand and then optically, and fermented with a gentle extraction in temperature-controlled concrete and stainless steel vats; the wine ages 16 to 18 months in French oak barrels, 40% of them new.

At a glance

Appellation

Pomerol

Commune

Pomerol

Classification

No classification

Owner

Établissements Jean-Pierre Moueix, full ownership since 2024; farmed by the house from 1962 to 2023

Vineyard

8 hectares; vines 25 years old on average

Soil

Deep gravel and clay, two thirds; clay and loam, one third Terroir of Pomerol →

Grapes

Merlot 100%

Farming

Haute Valeur Environnementale, level 3

Cellar

Picked by hand; hand and optical sorting; concrete and stainless steel vats; 16 to 18 months in French oak barrels, 40% new

Wines

Château Latour à Pomerol

In history

La Tour-Pomerol of Louis Garitey from 1893; a 1er cru classé in 1908; bought by Mme Loubat in 1917; 15 tonneaux in 1922