Château de la Tour

“This Domaine possesses by far the most important parcel of the grand cru Clos de Vougeot and has the privilege of being the sole producer that has its winery within the Clos itself. The quality of the grapes in the Vieilles Vignes is exceptional and their vinification in whole bunches, not destemmed, gives a wine of prodigious breeding, worthy of comparison with the greatest Richebourg. The standard cuvee, excellent also, is produced from the much younger vines…”Michel Bettane & Thierry Desseauve, Le Grand Guide des Vins de France, 2008 

The first thing to understand is that Chateau de la Tour has a number of historical advantages over its neighbours in the Clos. The fact that Chateau de la Tour is the largest holder in the Clos, with 6ha, means that it controls a significant chunk of the finest vineyards, mostly on the upper slopes of the Clos surrounding the Chateau (pictured on the label), just below Musigny.

Secondly these vineyards are managed organically (very unusual in the Clos) and have been done so for over 20 years! Thirdly, this is the only producer to have its winery within the Clos itself and it is always a quality advantage to be close to your vines. Then there is the age of the vines, for the most part between 60 and 100+ years old, the oldest vines in the Clos. All, this, combined with Francois Labet’s precise, 100% whole bunch winemaking, results in striking, classic wines of great breeding. The Vielles Vignes is one of the most powerful Vougeot’s released each year while the “classique” - fine, pure, intense and long - is one of the finest value Grand Cru Burgundies going around.

The second thing to understand is that the traditional, whole bunch fermentation results in structured wines that live for ever and typically require a good decant when served young. They begin showing their best at ten plus years of age. We have minute stocks available of the 2007s, 2006s and 2009s. The sumptuous 2010 releases have just arrived and are extremely limited. They are the most hedonistic and elegant wines we have ever shipped from this Domaine.

Château de La Tour is owned by Jeanne Labet and Nicole Déchelette with Jeanne’s son François at the helm. François Labet nurtures a great sense of responsibility to both past and future generations, taking sustainability very seriously. Everything he does in the vineyard is to preserve and enhance the integrity of the terroir. He works all of the Labet vineyards organically, focusing on producing healthy, quality grapes, “pas de bons vins sans des bons raisins” ("there isn't any good wine without good grapes") is the philosophy at the core of the Domaine. Vines are propagated by massale selection, that is from Château de La Tour’s most successful plants. François believes better balance is achieved by very short pruning to restrict the crop, preferring that to green harvesting. Harvesting is manual and sorting extremely rigorous. With a yield of around 29hl per ha, less than 30cl is produced per vine.

After sorting, the harvest undergoes seven to ten days of cold soaking, designed to fix colour, refine tannins and preserve fruit vitality. The whole bunches are then fermented under strictly controlled temperatures, pigeage twice a day minimum, and matured in up to 50% new oak. The wines are bottled without fining or filtration, true to François Labet’s minimalist approach towards intervention. Nothing is added to the wines, excepting sulphur, “sans levures, sans enzymes, sans rien” ("no yeast, no enzyme, nothing").

Clos de Vougeot has a very long history, inexorably linked with the church and specifically the Abbaye de Citeaux. In 910AD Saint Benedict established a religious order, based at Cluny, in the Mâconnais. By the mid-12th century, however, the Abbaye of Cluny had become immensely wealthy and powerful, a worldliness had crept in which was a far cry from the monastic denial espoused by the founder. Some Benedictines were concerned about this and one, the abbot Robert de Molesmes, from the town to the north of Dijon, did try to reform his community, embracing traditional values. Perhaps unsurprisingly his efforts were not universally well received and Robert and twenty cohorts established a new commune in the flatlands of eastern Burgundy – at Citeaux.

The monasteries appear, over many centuries, to have had an unerring ability to discover and exploit impeccable terroir. One can only assume that they had taken their eye off the ball in this case or that unsuitable land was part of their mortification. They opted for a forested area of reed-filled marshland. The French for reed is cistel which was latinicised to cistercium and the order became Cistercian. Try as they may, the Cistercian monks were unable to coax vines into growing successfully in the wetlands surrounding the abbey. They were therefore forced to seek out more suitable sites and, following the river Vouge upstream to the west, eventually decided upon a fine patch of land. These few hectares would form the heart of what is now Clos de Vougeot. 

In 1890, the Château of Château de La Tour was built by the Labet and Déchelette families who themselves had a viticultural history dating back to the 15th century.