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  • Country ranking ?

    1 801
  • Producer ranking ?

    129
  • Decanting time

    45min
  • When to drink

    now to 2025
  • Food Pairing

    skirt Steak with Pomegranate Sauce

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The nose presents the classic Latour aromas of cedar and coffee. The palate has kept a little fruit but lacks balance and has an astringent finish. This wine reached its peak long ago.

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The Story

The chateau makes three different wines. The so-called grand vin, that is Château Latour itself, a second wine called Les Forts de Latour and a third wine simply called Pauillac. The grand vin comes from the original part of the vineyards, called the Enclos. This is the most prestigious part of the vineyard where the vines have a fine view of the Gironde estuary. The tradition in Bordeaux says that vines that overlook the water make the best wine. The proximity to the estuary actually gives a slightly higher temperature, helping the grapes to good maturity. The Enclos is around 45 hectares out of a total of 88 for the whole estate.

The grape varieties are 75 % Cabernet Sauvignon, 23 % Merlot, 1 % Cabernet Franc and 1 % of Petit Verdot. The planting density is high, 10,000 vines per hectare. Every year the chateau’s viticulturist replaces a certain number of dead vines. These young vines are marked and treated separately. They are harvested separately and they are not used in the grand vin until they are at least 10 years old.

The Enclos is under conversion to organic farming since 2015. It takes three years to be certified so it means that we will see the first organic Château Latour in 2018. Only copper and sulfur, mixed with different plant infusions, are used to fight diseases in the vineyard. Instead of insecticides they use sexual confusion. Only organic fertilizers are used when needed and no herbicides.

The barrel aging starts in December. Château Latour is put in 100 % new oak from the Allier and Nièvre forest in the central part of France. The chateau works with 11 different coopers. This is important to the winemaker as the coopers all have different styles.

 

The wine spends six months in the first year cellar where it will also undergo the malolactic fermentation. The barrels are tasted regularly and the winemaker decides the blend for the grand vin, the second wine and the third wine. He decides if the press wine should be included or not. The wine is then moved to the huge and magnificent second-year cellar where it will spend 10-13 months, so in total around 22 months of aging before it is bottled. 2014 was bottled in June this year. During the barrel aging the wine is racked and topped up regularly, every 3 months. At the end, the wine is fined traditionally with egg whites, 5-6 whites per barrel.

Château Latour is often a textbook example of a Cabernet Sauvignon. No wonder, as often almost 90 % of the wine is made from this grape. It is a powerful wine in its youth, with aromas of cedar wood and black fruit, made even more powerful with the aging in 100 % new oak barrels. It is packed with fruit and tannins and it stays young for at least 10 years. This is a wine you really should wait for, say 10-15 year or longer. It needs time to show what it is capable of.

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Wine Information

Very wet weather prevailed throughout winter and continued until 15 April. A cold spell then settled in with morning frosts. May was rainy and cold with frosts. This May set a record for its lack of sunshine and the cold weather continued into the first half of June. Given these exceptionally unfavourable conditions, flowering started with some difficulty on 12 June and was very spread out. July was hot and sunny with little rain. Unfortunately, August and September were cold and rainy and the vines developed at a very slow pace. The harvest took place from 9 to 24 October in fine weather. The harvest was healthy with less rot than could have been feared, but nevertheless gave acidic musts, lacking in sugar and colour.

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Latest Pro-tasting notes

<10 tasting notes

Tasting note

color

Brick red

ending

Medium, Vibrant and Too tannic

nose

Modest, Volatile and Mature

recommend

Yes

taste

Low in Acidity, Low alcohol content, Mature, Modest, Elegant and Medium-Dry

Verdict

Uninteresting and Poor

Written Notes

The nose presents the classic Latour aromas of cedar and coffee. The palate has kept a little fruit but lacks balance and has an astringent finish. This wine reached its peak long ago.

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Information

Origin

Pauillac, Bordeaux
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