Louis Latour Chassagne-Montrachet 1erCru

When the 5th-generation Louis Latour replanted phylloxera-devastated hillsides with Chardonnay after 1891, he was rewriting the Côte de Beaune's white wine map — a decision that still defines the house's white winemaking philosophy today. Chassagne-Montrachet Premier Cru sits on the southern Côte de Beaune, where the limestone-marl soils shift toward a harder, more iron-tinged calcaire than the softer Puligny to the north, imparting a firmer mineral backbone and a tendency toward richer, more textured Chardonnay. Latour's white vinification begins with crushing before pressing, fermentation initiated in stainless steel without settling, then transferred hot into 228-litre French oak pièces — coopered in-house from air-dried French oak — to complete both alcoholic and malolactic fermentation. No lees-stirring is practised, a deliberate house choice that preserves primary fruit clarity over autolytic creaminess, producing a more structured, vertically-driven style than many Côte de Beaune peers. The 2022 vintage delivered vivid natural acidity alongside plush, ripe fruit — a combination that rewards 3–5 years of cellaring but is already expressive. The first vintage bottled under Diam 30 closure, eliminating cork-taint risk across a 30-year window.