Ch. de la Tour
Clos de Vougeot Vieilles Vignes Grand Cru
Vougeot
2015

The producer

Chateau de la Tour is the largest owner in the Clos with 5.48ha in several holdings including a large section in the middle around the chateau itself. The chateau was built in 1890 and remains in the same family, now Labet and Dechelette. Francois Labet and his son Edouard, from the excellent Domaine Pierre Labet in Beaune, are the current winemakers. Fastidious care in the vineyard, and low yields, results in concentrated but refined wines of the highest quality.

Clos de Vougeot Vieilles Vignes (VV) is selected from the best barrels from a hectare plot of vines planted in 1910, the remainder going into the Classique cuvee, while the Hommage a Jean Morin - named after the builder of the chateau – is an exceptional example of Clos de Vougeot.

The wine

Chateau de la Tour owns 5.48 hectares in several lieux-dits including one plot of circa 1 hectare of vines planted in 1910, which goes into the Vieilles Vignes cuvee. Organic farming has been employed since 1992, and fermentation usually takes place with a percentage of whole clusters and is followed by ageing in 225 litre oak barrels of which up to 70% is new.  This is a wine of immense fruit density with earthy and floral complexity, firm tannins, a richly textured body, and the longest finish.

We choose our wines based on a range of criteria (see how we choose our wines) of which critic scores is just one. Rather than simply highlight the best score to promote a wine, our average critic score is calculated from the scores provided by several respected wine critics, who we follow for specific regions. They do not represent all critic scores and, wherever possible, we try and give more weight to more recent reviews. Where appropriate we consider market-based scores like Global Wine Score or Wine Searcher Average scores.

As a rule, we look to offer wines that achieve a 92/100 average critic score or better and frankly a lot of very good wines simply don’t make the cut. As a high-end provider we want to reflect that positioning in the quality of wines we offer. Such wines are only a tiny fraction of those generally on offer in the market. We believe that an average score is a more conservative and representative approach, but it is still subjective and only offered as a guide to our customers, who will (and should) do their own research. We will add individual critic scores to our website in the future.