Wine Tasting Notes, Ratings

1990 Château Latour

1. There is some bricking in the color, which is a surprise for a young, vintage of Latour. The nose offers cigar box, smoke, cedar wood, licorice, jammy plum and cassis aromas with hints of wild strawberry. The wine is full bodied and concentrated, but it is developing at a rapid pace and might not be a wine for long term aging. The polished, soft, potent finish is a treat.

   96 points - Tasted Mar 27, 2013

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2. An interesting vintage of Chateau Latour, the wine clearly has its peaks and valleys along its evolutionary curve. Fortunately, at this tasting, it was having one of its good days with a perfume marked by a spice filled nose, coupled with wet earth, smoke, tobacco, caramel, tar, cassis, blackberry, hot bricks and cedar wood. Big, powerful full bodied and still youthful, the wine demands another decade for the ample tannins to further integrate into the rich, black and red fruit filled finish.

   96 points - Tasted Nov 22, 2012

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3. With a classic cedar, cassis, gravel, tobacco, earth, herb and lead pencil profile, this big, powerful, tannic, full bodied Latour wants to strut its stuff. Decanting is needed before it begins to emerge. There is a masculine quality to the wines character. It's a bit on the firm side. There are tannins that still need to be resolved. It needs another decade before we can know for sure what type of vintage 1990 was for Latour.

   96 points - Tasted Nov 27, 2011

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4. Cassis, blackberry, grilled nuts and cedar sparked the aromatics. Still tannic. Needs time. When tasting it, I commented how much it reminded me of the Las Cases. As they are neighbors, that is easy to understand. On the palate, the wine offers a lot of ripe juicy, Cabernet fruit. While stylish, it comes up short for the vintage and a First Growth. The finish and middle are shorter than I'd hoped. This will improve, but IMO, as good as it is, it's not at the top level Latour is producing today starting with the 95.

   95 points - Tasted Feb 11, 2009

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5. Young and primary. This deeply colored wine had aromatics of smoke, cassis, coffee, walnuts, forest and eucalyptus. Dense, tannic and chewy, but not overly complex or deep.

   95 points - Tasted Jun 15, 2006

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6. Cassis, walnut, maple, tobacco and earthy aromas are at your service. Classy, layers of ripe fruit end in a long cassis filled finsih.

   96 points - Tasted Jun 15, 2005

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7. While young and primary, it had it all. It was also shut down hard, but you could catch glimpses of its future greatness. Cassis, lead pencil, blackberries and oak were part of the perfume. This wine is huge, complex and very extracted. The palate is overtaken by layers of ripe fruit that awakens your taste sensors. Very tannic. I wouldn’t be surprised if this wine took 15-20 years to fully blossom into maturity and lasted another 30 years after that.

   94 points - Tasted Apr 25, 2004

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