Visits

Château la Tour de Bessan
Margaux, Cru Bourgeois (France)


 

The impressive, contemporary steel structure, conceived by the architect Vincent Defos du Rau, stands in the middle of the vineyard, in stark contrast with the neighbouring Médoc châteaux. The tasting room offers a view of the vinification cellar below and of art work poised above the winemaking tanks.

Château la Tour de Bessan, 2003
Moderately good. The great dominance of Merlot in this vintage was apparently as atypical as the very warm climate of 2003. Strong and fresh, green and still a little young. Blend of 85% Merlot, 15% Cabernet Sauvignon. (Nov 2006)

Ownership & Management
Owned by Lucien Lurton & Fils since 1972, and run by Marie-Laure Lurton-Roux since 1992. Émilie Roullé (Technical director since 1999)
 

Vineyard
19 ha, 39% Cabernet Sauvignon, 36% Merlot, 24% Cabernet Franc. Vines are about 25 years old. Gravel soil. Sustainable agriculture. Manual harvesting of the Merlot and Cabernet Franc, which are manually sorted on the vine and on a sorting table, then de-stemmed mechanically. Mechanical harvesting of the Cabernet Sauvignon (in order to harvest the grapes at their optimal maturity), which is then sorted and de-stemmed mechanically before being crushed.

Winemaking
The grapes are lightly crushed before being transferred to stainless steel vats where fermentation takes place.

Aged in oak barrels (15-20% new) for 6-12 months. The wine is fined each year at doses that vary depending on the year and filtered before bottling.

The estate adapts its vinegrowing and winemaking practices each year, and produces about 60-100,000 bottles of Château la Tour de Bessan every year.

Wines
·  Château la Tour de Bessan
·  Domaine Fortunat de Bessan