An historical building
The Pommard winery is housed within the buildings of a former manor house and was used as Maison Louis Latour's main winery until the acquisition of Corton Grancey in 1891. After this time the building became the company's centre for bottling, labelling and shipping until the construction of Clos Chameroy in the 1970s.
In 1999 the cuverie was renovated and became a winery for all the purchased red grapes from the Côte d'Or. The volume of grapes bought is equivalent to 15 to 20 hectares of Pinot Noir vineyards and represent about 300 to 350 barrels in each vintage, mainly from the villages of Pommard, Volnay, Gevrey-Chambertain, Nuits-Saint-Georges and Vosne-Romanée. Buying grapes rather than must or wine is advantageous because it gives full control over the selection, vinification and ageing; allowing Maison Louis Latour to maintain their house style in the finished wines, one of the principal tenants of a Negociant-eleveur. Our experience in our own vineyards and the close relationships we have built with growers over many generations gives us access to best grapes of each vintage and helps us protect the reputation of the house.
In Pommard, as at Corton
Grancey, the grapes are carefully sorted on arrival, de-stemmed and then
fermented in open wooded vats. The natural fermentation last between 12 and 14
days during which time punching down and pumping over is carried out to extract
colour from the Pinot Noir grapes. The wine is then aged for 10 to 12 months in
oak barrels, made at the Louis Latour Cooperage, before being bottled at Clos
Chameroy.
