Château Latour à Pomerol: Vineyards
As indicated, Château Latour à Pomerol lies close to the foot of the Pomerol plateau, on the same level as Château La Grave à Pomerol. But, as I have also explained in this profile, thanks to the acquisitions made by Madame Edmond Loubat after she took hold of the estate in the early 20th century, acquisitions which included some handsome parcels of vines up on the plateau, we cannot judge the wine in the context of the estate’s more lowly location.
Although ancient copies of Cocks et Féret clearly describe varied terroirs, and my history cites purchase of several plots of vines, today the estate comprises just two significant plots of vines. Together these make for a vineyard totalling just 7.9 hectares of vines. The first and most significant is Les Grandes Vignes, purchased by Madame Loubat, a plot 5 hectares in area, so accounting for approximately two-thirds of the domaine. These vines are located close to the all-important church in Pomerol, on gravel soils. The second plot of vines, gathered around the château and therefore close to the foot of the plateau, accounts for the remaining 2.9 hectares, about one-third of the estate. Here the soils are sandy, what the French call limoneux, a fine-grained silty soil with a particle size somewhere between clay and sand. I can only presume that other peripheral plots, including the second plot acquired by Madame Edmond Loubat after her inheritance, have been sold off along the way, or absorbed into other properties.
