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Uutiset
First growth Château Latour have released its 2006 grand vin and the 2012 vintage of its second wine, Les Forts de Latour
For several years now, we have been selecting wines from our cellars that we consider ready to drink. Whilst they can already be enjoyed by connoisseurs of the Estate, they also have excellent cellaring potential. This year we have chosen to release the Grand Vin de Château Latour 2006 and Les Forts de Latour 2012. The latter is the first of our wines to be released which has not previously been sold en primeur.
Château Latour 2006 is a beautiful wine with a dark and intense colour. This distinguished vintage is a perfect expression of the Enclos’ unique terroir demonstrated by the power and depth of the Cabernet Sauvignon. With its tannic structure now softening, this wine has reached the first stage of pleasure and is opening nicely on the nose whilst remaining full of promise for the future.
Thanks to a sunny and reasonably warm summer, the 2012 vintage gave rise to expressive, balanced and very charming wines. Forts de Latour is fruity, delicate and ripe. On the palate, the wine is suave and intense with beautifully aromatic flavours and a subtle tannin grain. This wine perfectly embodies our philosophy of cellaring at the Estate until the first stage of maturity has been reached.
These two wines will be released onto the market on the 21st March via a selection of Bordeaux wine merchants. They will join the Pauillac de Château Latour 2013 (already offered for sale at the beginning of the year) and precede Les Forts de Latour 2009 which will be released at the end of summer 2018.
Viinin Kuvailu
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.
Wine Information
2006 saw three very different climate periods between the winter and the harvest. January and February were much colder than previous years and the return of normal rainfall helped to replenish the soil's reserves. A drought then started in March and continued until late June. Flowering proceeded perfectly starting on 26 May. Dry weather until the middle of August did not allow normal vegetative growth, and the grapes were of reduced size. The end of August was much more variable with an alternation of cloudy, rainy spells with long sunny periods. The first ten days of September were beautiful and sunny. The weather deteriorated after 11 September, and rain arrived, prompting us to start the harvests on 19 September; the harvests were completed on 9 October.
