Pessac-Léognan · Graves classified growth, red and white
Château Latour-Martillac: available vintages, prices and pairings
The Latour-Martillac red and white, vintage by vintage, with the format, the guide price and what to expect from it today: ready to drink, or to keep. Tick what interests you, and the quote request goes with your selection.
The vintages on the price list
Filter by budget or by “ready to drink”. Nothing is sent until you click on the quote.
Two wines, one estate
Same estate, same team, two colours, both classified.
Latour-Martillac red
Cabernet sauvignon and merlot, a little petit verdot. Ready at around six years, it keeps for about twenty.
Latour-Martillac white
Sémillon and sauvignon blanc. Fresh in its first years, fuller afterwards; it keeps for about fifteen years.
In Martillac, like Smith Haut Lafitte, around the tower of an old fort that gives it its name. The Kressmann family, Bordeaux wine merchants, has owned it since 1930. The Graves classification, drawn up in 1953 and revised in 1959, has sixteen châteaux, all now in Pessac-Léognan; each is classified for its red, its white, or both. The other châteaux of the appellation are on the Pessac-Léognan wines page.
The vineyard is in two parts. On the Martillac plateau, the rise overlooking the estate is a mosaic of gravel (quartz, lydite, jasper, flint) deposited by the Garonne: poor, free-draining soils, for cabernet sauvignon and petit verdot. Towards the Garonne, the soil turns to clay and limestone; merlot, sauvignon blanc and sémillon are planted there. The oldest plot, Grapecap, 65 ares grafted in 1884, carries mostly sémillon, with sauvignon and muscadelle, and is worked with a horse. The whites spend more than a year on their lees in barrel, the reds 16 to 18 months.
What to serve it with
- The white: oysters, seafood (what wine with oysters), grilled fish or fish in a sauce (what wine with fish).
- The red: roast poultry (what wine with poultry), lamb (what wine with lamb), duck breast (what wine with duck).
- With cheese: a firm goat's cheese with the white, a firm cheese with the red (what wine with cheese).
Which vintage for which occasion
A classified growth at a reasonable price, in white and red: for a wedding or a family meal, the white with the fish starter, the red with the meat (which Bordeaux for a wedding). For a birthday, the birth year, if the table has it (birth-year vintage).
Is Latour-Martillac a classified growth?
Yes, a Graves classified growth for both its red and its white (1953 classification, revised in 1959).
Is it related to Château Latour?
No. Château Latour is a Pauillac first growth, in the Médoc; Latour-Martillac is in Martillac, in the Graves. Both owe their name to a tower.
When should you drink a Latour-Martillac red?
Allow six years before opening it and twenty years of good drinking, a little more in a great year, a little less in a weak year or in half bottle; for the white, three to fifteen years. The table applies this rule to each line; it isn't a tasting note, and a badly stored bottle ages faster.
Are the prices shown the prices on the quote?
They're the guide prices from the price list, incl. VAT, per bottle of the format, excluding delivery. The quote confirms the price, the availability of each vintage and the shipping; the delivery grid gives the lead times. For a vintage not in the table, the quote request is still open.