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Wine making

All our wines are produced at Château Latuc and come from the vineyards surrunding the house. They are bottled at the château. During harvesting (by hand, as much as possible), the grapes arrive at the vat room. They are destemmed (which removes the stems and breaks the skins so the juice can drain). The must is then pumped into the tank where fermentation can begin. A “pied de cuve”, prepared with juice from the harvested grapes and selected yeasts, is added to the vat. The first fermentation (alcoholic fermentation) takes a few days, with all the sugar in the grapes transforming into alcohol. Temperature control is very important at this stage. If the temperature is too high, the wine loses its fruit aromas and if it is too low, it will lack color and body. 27°C is a good compromise.

The wine is then left in contact with the skins of the grapes to extract the optimal amount of color and tannins. The skins are then separated from the wine and pressed to release the press wine. After some time, in vats, a second fermentation of around 3-4 weeks (malolactic fermentation) occurs, and makes the wine already much more supple and less aggressive.

During the winter the wine clarifies, stabilizes and precipitates. In the spring, the quality of the wine is checked blindly by professionals in the wine sector. It must comply with the standards set by the appellation, otherwise it will be downgraded to “table wine”. At this point the wine is ready and can be bottled. However, for our top quality wines - the Prestige and the Premier there is still a long way to go. We age around a third of our wine in French oak barrels from Allier to make these vintages. The time these wines spend in barrels allows microoxygenation and contact with the wood, smoothes the tannins and gives the wine more body and a more supple taste. It is a very expensive process, not only because of the time spent and the cost of the barrels, but also because each barrel "drinks" approximately 12 liters of wine per year, the "angels' share", due to evaporation .

 

Our wines are well known for their ability to age and most of them need several years to reach maturity.

Using the map, click on the different vines to wander through the different plots

Contact us ...

Address : Château Latuc, 80 chemin de Laborie, 46700 Mauroux

Phone : +33 5 65 36 58 63

Email : latuc@wanadoo.fr

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