Château Latour

The château

Latour stands at the southern end of Pauillac, 300 meters from the estuary, and most of its vines grow on gravel hilltops 12 to 16 meters above it. The heart of it is L’Enclos, the walled parcel of 47 hectares around the château, drained in the 19th century: clayey gravel at the center, gravelly sand at the edges and marly clay beneath. The grand vin comes only from the old vines of L’Enclos, which average 60 years, and Cabernet Sauvignon makes up more than 90% of its blend. The whole property runs to 96.5 hectares and about 900,000 vines, planted about 76% Cabernet Sauvignon and 22% Merlot with the rest in Cabernet Franc and Petit Verdot, and about 90 people work on it.

Latour has been a first growth in every book that ranked the Médoc, but its price was not always its own to set. William Franck, whose Traité sur les vins du Médoc first appeared in 1824, gave it 70 to 90 tonneaux (the old Bordeaux measure of a crop, 900 liters, or 4 barrels) under the Comte de la Palu and wrote that the English bought it almost every year the weather allowed. Charles Cocks, in Bordeaux: Its Wines and the Claret Country of 1846, recorded that since 1844 the whole crop had been farmed out to the house of Barton & Guestier on a lease of 10 years; the poet Biarnez cursed the broker who arranged it in his verses of 1849, and the agronomist d’Armailhacq drew the consequence in 1855: with Latour and Château Margaux tied up for years at a fixed price, Lafite alone was left to the trade, and its price knew no bounds.

From 1842 the estate belonged to a Société Civile of the Ségur descendants, and to them alone until 1962, when the Pearson group took 53% and Harveys of Bristol, later part of Allied Lyons, 25%. In 1989 Allied Lyons bought out Pearson and held 93%, the Ségur family keeping 7%. In June 1993 François Pinault bought the Allied Lyons stake through Artémis, his family holding, and Latour sits today inside Artémis Domaines. Frédéric Engerer came early in 1995, was made manager in 1998 and is now president and chief executive; Hélène Génin is estate director, Pierre-Henri Chabot cellar master and Domingo Sanchez vineyard manager, with Éric Boissenot at the blending.

Horses came back to the vineyard in 2008, the growing of the vines was reviewed in 2009, and the whole vineyard has been farmed organically since August 2015; the Ecocert certification of August 2018 covers the winery too, and biodynamic preparations are used on all of L’Enclos and on some plots outside it. Latour was among the first in Bordeaux to take up stainless steel, in the 1960s. The buildings were reworked from November 1999 to September 2003, and the vat room, renovated in 2001, holds more than 80 stainless steel vats of 12 to 164 hectoliters. The grand vin goes into new barrels every year for its first year, then spends 10 to 13 months in the second-year cellar.

Les Forts de Latour takes its name from a historic plot inside L’Enclos and was first labeled in 1966; it carries 25 to 30% Merlot, sees 50 to 60% new oak and also draws on older plots outside L’Enclos, on 7 hectares on the gravel terraces of Artigues bought in 2005 and on about 5 more bought in 2012. Pauillac de Château Latour, the third wine, has been made every year since 1989, with about 45% Merlot and about 20% new barrels. The last vintage sold en primeur (sold as futures, while the wine is still in barrel) was 2011; since then the wines go out through the négociants (merchants who buy from the châteaux and sell on) of La Place when the estate judges them ready, and a cellar built in 2012 holds them until then. The 2004, which I tasted in November 2025, came from a vintage that was not flashy, and Latour does not need a blockbuster year: a wine of graphite, cassis, cedar and fine herbs, firm and linear, its power intact while the aromatics open. If you want to understand why Latour is Latour, the 2004 explains it quietly.

At a glance

Appellation

Pauillac

Classification

Premier Cru Classé 1855

Owner

Artémis Domaines, the Pinault family, since June 1993; the Ségur descendants from 1842, with Pearson and Harveys of Bristol from 1962; Allied Lyons with 93% from 1989

Direction

Frédéric Engerer, president and chief executive, at Latour since 1995; Hélène Génin, estate director; Pierre-Henri Chabot, cellar master; Domingo Sanchez, vineyard manager

Consultant

Éric Boissenot, at the blending

Vineyard

96.5 hectares, about 900,000 vines; L’Enclos, the walled heart, 47 hectares of old vines averaging 60 years

Soil

Gravel hilltops 12 to 16 meters above the Gironde; in L’Enclos, clayey gravel, gravelly sand at the edges, marly clay beneath Terroir of Pauillac →

Grapes

Cabernet Sauvignon about 76%, Merlot about 22%, the rest Cabernet Franc and Petit Verdot

Farming

Organic since August 2015, Ecocert certified in August 2018; biodynamic preparations on all of L’Enclos; horses since 2008

Cellar

More than 80 stainless steel vats of 12 to 164 hectoliters; 100% new barrels for the grand vin, 50 to 60% for Les Forts, about 20% for the Pauillac

Wines

Château Latour; Les Forts de Latour, first labeled in 1966; Pauillac de Château Latour, every year since 1989

Release

No en primeur after the 2011 vintage; released when judged ready

In history

The whole crop leased to Barton & Guestier for 10 years from 1844