Located in Maumusson – in the north of the Madiran appellation – on great limestone-clay and salty-clay soils, Domaine LABRANCHE LAFFONT was only a 6 hectare (15 acres) estate vineyard when Christine DUPUY took over the family estate in 1992, just after her father’s death. She was then 23 years old and had to immediately take-up the challenge of a very difficult but extraordinary adventure to run the vineyard.
Christine had the theory basis but no practical experience. Full of abnegation, courage and motivation, she called for help and got some from her famous neighbours MM. Ducourneau, Laplace and Capmartin. 1992 was her first vintage and a real challenge. The wines were the first of the vineyard to be oak barrel-aged for part of the crop and were rewarded with a citation in a famous French wine guide. In 1994, she started to use the brand new micro-oxygenation technology, locally invented by P. Ducourneau and now used all over the world to soften the tannins of the Tannat, then step by step and every year, she has adopted and adapted changes to her vines and vinification to always improve and provide more fruit and roundness to her powerful and structured wines. Today, Domaine LABRANCHE LAFFONT is a 18 hectare (45 acres) estate in Madiran and Pacherenc appellation. Most of the Tannat vines are more than 50 years old, including a spectacular 2 acre parcel of twisted and knotted 155 years old Tannat vines planted before Phyloxera ravaged France, used for the amazing Vieilles Vignes Cuvée.
Christine DUPUY has been widely praised for her Madiran wines and also her brilliant dry and sweet Pacherenc du Vic Bilh.
Domaine Labranche Laffont
