Chateau La Louviere, 2004

Today the La Louvière vineyard totals 61.5 hectares, with 13.5 for white varieties and 48 for red; the soils are mostly gravel, with some areas of limestone. The vines have an average age of approximately 22 years, and are planted on 101.14, Riparia gloire and 3309 rootstocks at a density of up to 8500 vines/ha. With regard to the white varieties, Sauvignon Blanc accounts for 85% of the vineyard, with 15% Semillon; these are harvested by hand in several tries before fermentation in oak barrels at a temperature of up to 23ºC, before 12 months ageing on the lees with bâtonnage. The red varieties include 64% Cabernet Sauvignon, 30% Merlot and 3% each of Cabernet Franc and Petit Verdot. After harvesting by hand these are fermented in a mixture of stainless steel and concrete tanks, with temperatures allowed to rise to 30ºC. The wine then sees up to 12 months of oak, up to 75% new each vintage, before an egg white fining and bottling. The grand vin, be it red or white, is Chateau La Louvière, and there are second wines in both colours named L de Louvière. The whole process is overseen by cellarmaster Olivier Cornu, with consultation from Denis Dubourdieu on both the red and white fermentations. Mature vintages of La Louvière have not crossed my lips that often, with the 1994 red being the only potential candidate; on both occasions I have really enjoyed this wine. In more recent vintages, however, there have also been some sterling efforts, for both white wines and red in 2005 and 2006, and the white 2007 was also of good quality; I did not taste the corresponding red wine from this latter vintage. In 2003 the white was very typical of the vintage and thus not really to my liking, although the red was more interesting. What is more the wines remain good value, and are certainly worth considering as an alternative to the classified wines of the region.