Latour

Tasting Notes:
A sleeper of the vintage, the 2005 Les Forts de Latour (10,000 cases produced) is made in the style of its big brother, offering notes of blue and black fruits, crushed rocks, and flowers, sweeter tannins, but not the weight, depth, or extract of Latour. This impressive second wine will drink well in 4-5 years, and last for 20+ years. Ask just about anybody which first-growth is pushing quality to the highest level, and the majority will claim it is Latour. With owner Francois Pinault giving perfectionist administrator Frederic Engerer carte blanche, this estate has been producing spectacular wines since 2000. New cellars, winemaking facilities, and barrel rooms only add to their ability to produce classic wines. Production is much smaller than at other Medoc first-growths with only 44% of the 2005 production making it into the grand vin. The Wine Advocate #170 Apr-07.
Parker Points: 92
Drinking Period: 2011-2027

Tasting Notes:
The estateÕs second wine continues to go from strength to strength. The 2004 Forts de Latour (includes 75% Cabernet Sauvignon) reveals a deep ruby/purple hue, classic evolved cedary, lead pencil, and cassis characteristics, medium body, beautiful sweetness of fruit, and a more forward, evolved character than its big sibling. Enjoy it over the next 15+ years. Also tasted: 2004 Pauillac (87; $38.00) Wine Advocate # 171 Jun 2007
Parker Points: 90
Drinking Period: 2007-2022

Tasting Notes:
A classic second wine that shows outstanding potential, the dark ruby/purple-colored 2002 has notes of cedar wood, black currants, earth, and truffles in a medium to full-bodied, supple-textured, beautifully concentrated style that can be drunk now or cellared for 10-15 years. Wine Advocate # 158 Apr 2005
Parker Points: 92
Drinking Period: 2005 - 2020

Tasting Notes:
Latour's second wine exhibits a dark ruby/purple color as well as a nose of black fruits, ketchup, earth, and minerals. Moderately tannic and closed, it is reminiscent of its bigger brother. Give it 4-5 years of cellaring and enjoy it over the next two decades. Wine Advocate # 134 Apr 2001
Parker Points: 88
Drinking Period: 2004 - 2020

Tasting Notes:
Latour's second wine, Forts de Latour, is now one of the two or three finest second wines of Bordeaux (Bahans-Haut-Brion and the Clos du Marquis of Leoville Las-Cases are two other personal favorites). The terrific, dark ruby/purple-colored 1995 possesses a sweet, jammy black fruit-scented nose intertwined with smoky minerals, earth, and spicy oak. The wine is surprisingly thick and rich in the mouth, with its glycerin and concentration of fruit largely concealing the moderate tannin. This excellent, sweet wine is less powerful, but more accessible than the 1996. Wine Advocate # 115 Feb 1998
Parker Points: 89
Drinking Period: 2001 - 2015

Tasting Notes:
The rich, well-endowed 1990 possesses round, generous, surprisingly concentrated flavors. It will make ideal drinking over the next 10-15 years. The most complete second wine made at this property since their glorious 1982, over one-half of the crop was relegated to this wine. Robert Parker Wine Advocate
Parker Points: 90
Drinking Period: 1993-2005

Tasting Notes:
A terrific effort from Administrator Frederic Engerer and owner Francois Pinault, the dark ruby/purple-tinged 2004 Latour exhibits a strong cassis character intermixed with notes of crushed rocks, earth, cedar, and forest floor. Racy, elegant, but powerful with medium to full body, and sweet tannin, it will benefit from 5-7 years of cellaring, and should keep for three decades. It is a very impressive offering. Also tasted: 2004 Pauillac (87; $38.00) The Wine Advocate #171 Jun-07.
Parker Points: 95
Drinking Period: 2012-2037

Tasting Notes:
This wine was tasted at a vertical tasting held in Charlotte, North Carolina several days before the Christie tasting. The Latour staff spoke far more highly of the 1989 than my experience has shown. It possesses many characteristics that make great vintages of Bordeaux so alluring - softness, overripeness, and sweet fruit. The problem is that there are insufficient quantities of these components. An evolved dark ruby color reveals amber at the edge. The nose offers aromas of caramel, coffee, ripe black cherry and currant fruit, cedar, and spice box. Although medium-bodied, with low acidity, the wine lacks richness in the mid-palate, and is surprisingly abrupt in the finish. It is a very fine, delicious Latour, but it is hard to believe it will attain the weight and flavor dimensions its producers suggest. Wine Advocate # 129 Jun 2000
Parker Points: 89
Drinking Period: 2000-2020

Tasting Notes:
Tasted from my cellar, the 1986 has consistently been outstanding, falling short of being sublime. The spicy, peppery bouquet reveals aromas of dried herbs and red currant fruit. Medium-bodied, austere, but youthful, vigorous, and concentrated, this wine still requires 4-5 years of cellaring. It is surpassed in this vintage (which favored the northern Medoc and Cabernet Sauvignon) by its rivals, Lafite-Rothschild and Mouton-Rothschild. Anticipated maturity: 2005-2020. Wine Advocate # 129 Jun 2000
Parker Points: 90
Drinking Period: 2005-2020

Tasting Notes:
Tasted from my cellar, the 1986 has consistently been outstanding, falling short of being sublime. The spicy, peppery bouquet reveals aromas of dried herbs and red currant fruit. Medium-bodied, austere, but youthful, vigorous, and concentrated, this wine still requires 4-5 years of cellaring. It is surpassed in this vintage (which favored the northern Medoc and Cabernet Sauvignon) by its rivals, Lafite-Rothschild and Mouton-Rothschild. Anticipated maturity: 2005-2020. Wine Advocate # 129 Jun 2000
Parker Points: 90
Drinking Period: 2005-2020

Tasting Notes:
As I indicated in the review of the 1982 Bordeaux, this is an unusual Latour in the fact that it has always been precocious. It has been jammy, forward, and delicious no matter when the cork was pulled, in total contrast to its two first-growth siblings, Mouton Rothschild and Lafite-Rothschild. The dense, opaque garnet-colored 1982 Latour reveals slight amber at the edge. Sweet, smoky, roasted aromas in the nose combine with jammy levels of black currant, cherry, and prune-like fruit. It possesses extraordinary concentration and unctuosity, with a thick, fat texture oozing notes of cedar wood, tobacco, coffee, and over-ripe fruit. Low acidity as well as high alcohol (for Bordeaux) give the wine even more glycerin and textural chewiness. The finish lasts forever. The only Latour that remotely resembles the 1982 is the 1961, which has a similar texture and succulence. Wine Advocate # 129 Jun 2000
Parker Points: 100
Drinking Period: Now-2040

Tasting Notes:
Dark garnet with an amber edge, the 1959 Latour reveals a touch of volatile acidity in the nose, along with aromas of melted caramel, tobacco, and jammy red and black fruits. As the wine sat in the glass, notes of minerals, coffee, spice, and underbrush emerged. There is still copious tannin in the finish (I am not sure it will ever be fully resolved), but this sumptuous, complex, fragrant, super-rich Latour cuts a broad swath across the palate. Fully mature, it is best consumed over the next decade. Wine Advocate # 129 Jun 2000
Parker Points: 96
Drinking Period: 2000-2010