Winemaker
Édouard Labet
- Discipline
- Winemaker
- Based in
- Vougeot, France
Known for
- Managing Chateau de la Tour and Domaine Pierre Labet
- Clos de Vougeot Grand Cru production
- Organic and biodynamic viticulture
- Whole-cluster Pinot Noir vinification
i. Biography
Viticulture at Château de la Tour and Domaine Pierre Labet is organized around two addresses and a long family line. Since 2018, Édouard Labet has managed the family estates in Burgundy, France, in a role that is both operational and patrimonial. The work sits within a sixth-generation winemaking line in a family involved in viticulture since 1492, with Édouard working today with his father François Labet across holdings shaped by a famed walled grand cru, Beaune, and Burgundian land memory.
The Trajectory
Succession in Burgundy is measured less by arrival than by the handling of inherited decisions. As a sixth-generation winemaker, Édouard Labet co-manages Château de la Tour and Domaine Pierre Labet with his father, François Labet, carrying vineyard knowledge, cellar discipline, and family responsibility into present use. Place sets the terms: the enclosed grand cru site gives Château de la Tour its walled scale, while the Beaune-based holdings extend the family's range across additional appellations. The progression is a return to parcels already worked through prior generations. In Labet's case, the inheritance is not only the name on the label, but the accumulated choices behind it: farming, picking, preservation, and measured adjustment without severing the estate line.
The Current Chapter
Estate management is shared by father and son. As Édouard Labet states: "My father and myself are managing two family estates: Chateau de la Tour, the only winery located in the Clos de Vougeot itself, and Domaine Pierre Labet." The work at Château de la Tour is centered on grand cru wines, including Clos-Vougeot Vieilles Vignes. The eldest Vieilles Vignes vines were planted in 1910. A third cuvée, Hommage à Jean Morin, has been released only in exceptional vintages since 2010, made through precise picking of each old vine. The method places individual vine selection inside the larger frame of the historic clos. The Beaune side of the work broadens the range. Domaine Pierre Labet produces villages and premier cru appellation wines from Meursault north to Gevrey-Chambertin. Across both domaines, the wines are made in the historic cellars at the home winery and are whole-bunch vinified, giving fruit from different sites a shared cellar grammar. Farming and cellar decisions are treated as linked parts of the same practice. Labet uses organic farming and biodynamic practices, prefers pruning rather than green harvesting to help grapes ripen properly, and relies on hand harvesting and hand selection to preserve grape quality. In the cellar, he employs indigenous yeasts, whole-cluster fermentation, no racking after malolactic fermentation, and no filtration before bottling. For Domaine Pierre Labet whites, he keeps all the lees and uses a tiny bit of SO2 after pressing; as he puts it, "We have moved from a more natural, slightly oxidative winemaking to something more based on reduction and lees aging."
Signature
The signature bottlings are Clos-Vougeot Vieilles Vignes, Clos-Vougeot Hommage à Jean Morin, and Château de la Tour's third cuvée. They define the estate's working priorities: old vines, exact selection, and Clos de Vougeot interpreted through separate bottlings from the same family ground.
Recognition
The primary credential is lineage made operational: Labet is a sixth-generation winemaker in a family viticultural history traced to 1492. In 2024, under heavy mildew pressure, he stayed organic in Clos de Vougeot while using 23 sprays. His summary was direct: "It was a challenging season, but we stayed organic." The same discipline applies across the broader work. Clos de Vougeot, old-vine cuvées, and Beaune-based appellation wines are handled through a father-to-son method that still permits adjustment in farming, picking, lees, reduction, and whole-bunch vinification. Continuity here is active practice: maintained through repeated decisions in the vineyard and cellar, vintage by vintage.
Profile updated July 2026
FAQ
Asked of Édouard
What is Édouard Labet's day job?
Édouard Labet manages the two family estates Château de la Tour and Domaine Pierre Labet.
What is Édouard Labet known for?
Clos de Vougeot wines at Château de la Tour.
What is Édouard Labet's craft?
Manages the two family estates Château de la Tour and Domaine Pierre Labet — Château de la Tour and Domaine Pierre Labet (Vougeot and Beaune, France) (2018–present).
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