Louis-Fabrice Latour passed away in the night of 5 September at the young age of 58, Le Figaro reported. He was the 11^th generation to head Louis Latour in Beaune, the wine producer and négociant, a business that his forbears founded in 1797.

Born in Beaune in 1964, he joined the family business in 1989 and was handed the reins in 1999. He expanded the family holdings with the acquisitions of Maison Simonnet-Febvre in Chablis in 2003 and Maison Henry Fessy in Beaujolais in 2008.

A charming and modest man, he was a key figure in Burgundy. Until 2021, he was president of the Burgundy Wine Board and also acted as president for the Fédération des négociants-éleveurs de Grande Bourgogne and the Fédération des exportateurs de vins et spiritueux. He also worked on the application for the climats of Burgundy to be recognised as UNESCO World Heritage, a status granted in 2015.

The BIBV, the Burgundy Wine Board, tweeted: “Burgundy wines have just lost a great man. Louis-Fabrice Latour has passed away. He was President of the BIVB. His commitment to the defence and promotion of our wines, his contagious enthusiasm and his dynamism contributed to the influence of Burgundy.”