The grapevines are around 60 years old, very old, to be certain. Some of them are even more than 70 years old, proof of the exceptional quality of the soil.
The grape variety on our estate is typically from Southwest France made of 80% of Tannat and 20% of Cabernet Franc and Sauvignon, small and large Manseng, and finally small Courbu.
With common sense and patience, we proceed to harvest grapes manually.
The juices produced from destemmed harvest are turned into wine with short barrel fermentation, respecting the raw material. They are matured in oak barrels for 12 months for the red wines and 6 months for the white wines.
Less than 2% of the wine produced all around the world is matured in barrels. Here at Château Laffitte-Teston, barrel fermentation represents 100% of our AOC Madiran/Pacherenc production, making our wines even more unique as we are the only ones around to do so.
The domain has two wine cellars: one with air-conditioning on the ground floor for our white wines and one underground that can fit 600 barrels for our red wines. Our strength lies in the quality of this wine cellar with its natural and constant temperature between 13 and 18 degrees Celsius (55 and 64 ° Fahrenheit), creating ideal conditions for maturing the wine.