The tireless Louis-Fabrice Latour was the 11th generation of his family to lead the company, which was founded in 1797.
He passed away on 5 September 2022 at the age of 58 following a battle with cancer, survived by his wife Patricia, their four children and his three siblings.
The board has now appointed his brother, Florent, to lead the company forward into a new era.
‘We miss my brother – the man and the leader,’ said Florent. ‘He marked Maison Latour and Burgundy, and we measure everything we owe him.
‘I wish to pursue with the team the path that Louis-Fabrice has traced, in a spirit of trust and continuity.’
Louis-Fabrice received the Légion d’Honneur in 2011, one of many awards bestowed upon him during a highly distinguished career.
He joined Maison Louis Latour in 1989 and spent more than 30 years preserving the company’s independent spirit, which his brother has now been tasked with maintaining.
Florent was born in Beaune and spent a large part of his childhood surrounded by the vineyards of Aloxe-Corton.
He is a graduate of HEC Paris, the FT’s top-ranked business school in Europe, and he holds an MBA from Harvard.
Prior to taking on this role at the family business, Florent worked in the technology industry in France and the United States.
Louis Latour is the largest vineyard owner of Grand Cru sites in Burgundy and the leading grower-négociant in Beaune, with around 200 staff.
The family-owned business is passionate about preserving traditional viticulture on terroirs of excellence to produce wines that display extreme finesse, and this is a legacy that the new chairman will seek to preserve.