Our environmental approach

Located in the heart of Martillac village and therefore close to other houses, Château Latour-Martillac has been committed for several years to changing its cultivation practices to better respect the local fauna and flora as well as our teams, the residents next to our vineyards and our customers.

The estate wished to mark its environmental engagement in gaining High Value Environmental Level 3 certificate obtained in September 2020, within the framework of the Environmental Management System (SME) set up by the CIVB in 2010.

This certification validates the good practices already in place:

Reduction of phytosanitary inputs
Maintaining biodiversity in and around our vineyards
Sustainable management of water resources

The estate has begun the process to obtain the Bee Friendly certification from the SME. The aim of this certification is to protect bees in the agricultural environment and to validate the actions already carried out.

This commitment means in particular for the property:

No disturbance from viticultural activities on bees and other pollinating insects.
Maintaining and promoting the establishment of quality ecosystems for bees.

Bees and the presence of pollinating insects are very good indicators of the quality of an ecosystem. Since 2010, we are happy to be able to support the work of a beekeeper on our land. He has installed 38 beehives in the heart of our Martillac vineyard and about fifteen near the plots of Chateau Langlet in Cabanac.

The key dates

of our commitment to the environment

The HVE3 certification illustrates our engagement, for many years now, with viticulture practices respectful to the environment. These steps have been slowly put in place.

The key dates of this engagement are as follows:

1999: Establishment of a treatment plant for viticultural waste.
2000: Introduction of green harvesting in the vineyard, prophylactic treatment.
2008: An end to chemical pesticides on the last 3 hectares treated like this in Martillac.
2008: Deployment of sexual confusion in the vineyard.
2010: Beginning of hedge planting and ecological corridors along our vineyards.
2010: Installation of the first beehives on the vineyards of Martillac and Langlet.
2014: End of anti-botrytis treatments.
2014: Use of horses for ploughing in the old vines.
2015: End of treatments containing CMR products.
2016: Financing of 50 hornbeam trees and 1.6 km of hedges in the village of Martillac.
2019: New approach to obtain HVE3 certification within the SME framework.
2020 : HVE3 certification obtained and process to obtain the Bee Friendly certification

On the Langlet property located in Cabanac-et-Villagrains, we own 55 hectares of PEFC certified forest. This standard promotes the balance between the environmental, social and economic dimensions of the forest through guarantees of sustainable practices.

A new cellar

with respect to the environmental conditions

In 2020 the construction of our new red wine cellar was completed. It has been designed to take into account environmental issues right from its conception:

The new vat room is equipped with stainless steel tanks treated on the inside walls to limit the adhesion of tartar crystals in the wine and to allow easier cleaning and reduced water consumption;

These vats are also equipped with “double skins” which provides thermal isolation and better efficiency;
The waste water cooling system of the old vat room has been replaced by an air-cooling unit to save water.

Suppliers

selected according to their eco-responsible commitment

In addition to the vineyard and our technical buildings, we are working with partners and suppliers who share our respect for the environment.

Together, we have made the following choices:

Barrels

Our barrels are resourced exclusively from French forests from the center of France. More than half of our supplier-coopers use wood from forests certified PEFC.

Bottles

Our bottles are produced in Vayres in Gironde. Depending on the colour, between 55 and 80% are recycled.

Corks

We continue to use natural corks because it is the best closure system for its carbon footprint compared to screw caps or engineered corks or glass.

Wooden cases and cartons

Our partners are particularly committed to a 100% traceability of the wood used, the use of short supply circuits and the recycling of waste.

The cardboard used is composed of 75% recycled and 100% recyclable materials. All our cardboard manufacturing and printing processes are located between the Vendée, Charente and Gironde regions.

Capsules

Tin capsules, 100% recyclable.

Labels

One area where we still have a long way to go.

Constraints imposed on us:

the use of very long-lasting glues which correspond with the shelf life of our wines (up to 30/40 years)
the resilience of labels for our white wines, especially when our bottles are placed in ice buckets.

We are working on a daily basis to improve the carbon footprint of this component of our production.

Local products for tastings:

With our “food and wine pairing” tastings, we showcase the products of the Bordeaux region and encourage “local consumption” wherever possible. This has led to some excellent collaborations with local partners such as the From’Ange cheese dairy in La Brède, the Bordeaux chocolate maker Cadiot-Badie, Caviar de France in Biganos and the bakery in Martillac.

With regard to communication, we voluntarily limit the volume of our printing of brochures and other leaflets. We favour digital communications via our website and social networks (Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, WeChat).
When we print a communication document, it is always printed on PEFC (Greenpeace European standard) and/or FSC (WWF international standard) papers, i.e. from sustainably managed forests. The inks used are vegetable-based and all the supplies used (plates, etc…) are recycled.
Our teams have also set up simple and concrete actions to promote sustainable development, every day, in the offices. In order to save paper, we encourage on-screen reading, digital document sharing and limit printing to what is strictly necessary. The printers have been set by default to black/white and double-sided printing, in order to drastically reduce the use of ink cartridges and the amount of paper.
Special care is taken to recycle waste (wine bottles, paper, printer cartridges, compost for coffee, batteries…) and collections for local associations have even been set up (pens, plastic caps, corks…).
In order to save energy, our employees have been made aware of the importance of putting computers and screens on standby during the lunch break, but also when not in use for a long time, as well as switching off all computer stations in the evening.
Finally, the computers are equipped with the “Ecosia” social search engine – certified “B Corporation” to adopt ethical and environmental standards – which offsets the carbon emissions generated by each search by using the profits to replant trees: 45 searches on this “green” search engine result in the planting of a tree.

A close engagement with the neighbourhood

Today, our vines of Martillac border the houses along 1.45 km, about 15% of the perimeter of our vineyard.

Since 2020, we have been engaged in the Charter of Good Neighbourliness initiated by the Gironde Chamber of Agriculture and endorsed by the Pessac-Leognan Wine Syndicate.

This charter contains the following elements:

Non-Treatment Zones (ZNT) close to neighbouring houses;
Ban on carrying out treatments with winds exceeding 19 km/h;
Local residents informed the day before planned treatments on the vineyard.