Chateau La Tour Carnet

The fortress was inhabited as early as the 12th Century, by the English, and it constituted a valuable military asset when Bordeaux was under English rule. The seigneurie of St-Laurent at this time was held by the Foix family, who were closely allied to the English king. Nevertheless, the land eventually fell to French rule once again, and the impressive castle was partly destroyed.

Despite the influence of its proprietor, however, the vines of La Tour Carnet were no less susceptible to phylloxera than any others in Bordeaux, and the estate subsequently went into decline, and like much of the Bordeaux vineyard it continued to deteriorate during the 20th Century. Up to 1962, Louis Lipschitz, who was of Polish descent, purchased the Chateau La Tour Saint-Laurent. During the two year followed this acquisition, the grape available for wine making is very limited, there was only some 20 barrels, compared with now 130. Actually, during the first two year that Lipschitz has taken over Chateau La Tour-Carnet Saint-Laurent, he restored the chateau and associated buildings, replanted the whole vineyard, and expanding it to 30 hectare.In 1978, Mme Marie-Claire Pelegrin, the daughter of Louis Lipschitz took over the estate, and run the estate in company with his husband Guy-Francois, and she continued her father’s work, the once severely contracted vineyard expanding once again to a healthy 45 hectares. There was also some innovation on the part of her husband, Guy Francois, who invented a rotary sorting table. Guy-Francois is a very attractive and outgoing man. He abandon his own publish world to turn out to a oenologist with great passion. His death is also full of heroical: when the worker who was cleaning the vat was fumed by the strong spirits of wine to faint, Guy-Francois forgot his own safety and entered into the vat, eager to save that worker, unexpectedly, he died for the reason of imbibing superfluous spirits of wine.

Nowadays’ owner: Bernard Magrez
Vineyard magnate Bernard Magrez, whose holdings encompass 21 properties in the Bordeaux region, including legendary Chateau Pape-Clement, and 11 other properties throughout the world, is the man behind this little superstar of a wine. As with all of his properties, everything is done by hand with the help of oenologist consultant Michel Rolland. They make a fabulously rich and concentrated wine from poor soil that is made for winegrowing.
Technique Information
Location: Saint-Laurent Medoc

Appellation: Appellation Haut-Medoc Controlee
Neighboring Chateau: Chateau Camensac (5th growth of Haut Medoc in 1855)
Acreage: 70 hectares of vines out of a total of 126 hectares
Soil: The clay soil has a layer of asteriated limestone and a thick layer of Guntz glacial deposits.
Grape Varieties:
Red Varieties: 53% Cabernet Sauvignon, 33% Merlot, 10% Cabernet Franc, and 4% Petit Verdot
White Varieties: 62% Sauvignon Blanc, 33% Semillon, and 5% Muscadelle
Wine grape variety:
Red Wine: 40% Caberntet Sauvignon, 50% Merlot, 7% Cabernet Franc, 3% Petit Verdot.
White Wine: 33% Sauvignon, 29% Sauvignon gris, 33% Semillon and 5% Muscadelle.
Rose Wine: 50% Cabernet Sauvignon, 30% Merlot, 20% Carbernet Franc.
Average age of vines: 30 years
Cultivation Density: 8,000-10,000 vines per hectare
Viticulture: Guyot double pruning methoud, without a renewal spur. Viticultural practices are environmentally minded, and carried out in keeping with profile of each individual plot. Leaf thinning and bunch thinning.
Winemaking:
Red Wine: The grapes are hand-picked into small crates after an initial sorting in the vineyard. 15% of the harvest is manually destemmed, and the rest with an E1 destemmer. The grapes are put uncrushed into wooden vats. Cool pre-fermentation maceration. Manual punching down of the cap. 70% of the wine is aged on the lees in new French oak barrels for 18 months with regular batonnage (stirring with a stick).
White Wine: After initial sorting in the vineyard, the grapes are hand-picked into small crates in the morning to retain cool, fresh acidity. They are sorted a second time after destemming.

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