Louis Latour Chambolle-Musigny

When Jean Latour established the house in 1797 — his family already three generations into vine ownership on the Côte d'Or — the ambition was to vinify Burgundy's most fragrant appellation without compromise on stability. Chambolle-Musigny sits on a narrow band of Jurassic limestone and fine clay at the northern edge of the Côte de Nuits, its shallow, well-drained soils producing Pinot Noir of pronounced floral lift and tensile structure that distinguishes it from the broader, more muscular communes to the south.

Louis Latour's red winemaking begins with 100% hand-harvesting and full destemming, followed by fermentation in one of 45 large open wooden vats at the Corton Grancey Cuverie — a gravity-flow facility built into the hillside in 1832. Approximately 14 days of vatting with manual pigeage extracts colour and structure without over-extraction. Aging proceeds in French oak barrels (15–35% new, medium toast, 10–12 months), the staves air-dried for up to 36 months at the house's own cooperage. Before bottling, the wine undergoes flash pasteurisation at approximately 72°C for 2–3 seconds — a practice Latour openly acknowledges and defends for microbiological stability, eliminating fining entirely, though it remains a point of critical debate regarding long-term aromatic development. No other major Burgundy house applies this technique so consistently across its red range. The 2018 vintage delivered outstanding freshness across the Côte d'Or, the fifth consecutive fine Burgundy harvest, producing wines of approachable volume and good structural tension.