1978 Château Latour Grand Vin Pauillac Bordeaux France Wine Tasting Note
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Starting to dry out and drop its fruit, the wine provides a look into the past with green, peppery, herbal slant to its fruit and its bright, crisp, strict finish. Drink from 2023-2025. 3,372 Views Tasted Jul 4, 2023This is an old school style of Bordeaux which is more interesting on the nose than the palate with its tobacco, cedar, lead pencil, cassis, cranberry, olive and wet earthy nose. It’s a little dry in the mouth, the tannins have a rustic quality. The wine feels firm on the palate in the slightly tart finish. 5,974 Views Tasted Nov 22, 2012Masculine in style, this cassis, truffle, cedar, earth and spice scented wine was very nice on the nose. On the palate, good weight with flavors of spicy black fruit. But, the finish was a bit short and had a slight bitter or sour note on the end. This wine has slipped past its prime. If you have any in your cellar, drink up as it will not improve and will continue losing fruit. 5,306 Views Tasted Jun 15, 2009Masculine in style, this Latour seems to have misplaced its fruit. Nice nose of cassis and earth, but the palate was short, tannic and displaying a bit of sour fruit in the finish. 78 Latour was much better 5 years ago, and even better 5 years before that. This wine needs to be drunk up in the near future. 4,840 Views Tasted Jan 2, 2007Cassis, licorice and wood on the nose. Medium bodied with very cabernet tasting fruit, this is not improving and is slowly drying out. It lacks the elegance and density to make this a very good wine. The finish displays less fruit than it should and ends with dry notes. Drink up. 4,096 Views Tasted Feb 25, 2004 |
When to Drink Chateau Latour, Anticipated Maturity, Decanting Time
Chateau Latour is not a wine to drink on the young side. The wine is usually far too tannic, powerful and reserved during its youth. Young vintages can be decanted for an average of 3-6 hours, give or take. This allows the wine to soften and open its perfume. Older vintages might need very little decanting, just enough to remove the sediment.
Chateau Latour is usually better with at least 15 years of bottle age. Of course, that can vary slightly, depending on the vintage character. Chateau Latour offers its best drinking and should reach peak maturity between 18 and 60 years of age after the vintage.
Serving Chateau Latour with Wine and Food Pairings
Chateau Latour is best served at 15.5 degrees Celsius, 60 degrees Fahrenheit. The cool, almost cellar temperature gives the wine more freshness and lift.
Chateau Latour is best paired with all types of classic meat dishes, veal, pork, beef, lamb, duck, game, roast chicken, roasted, braised and grilled dishes. Chateau Latour is also good when matched with Asian dishes, rich fish courses like tuna, mushrooms and pasta.
In 2011, Chateau Latour added to their holdings in Pauillac when they purchased the 4-hectare vineyard of Chateau La Becasse from the Fonteneau family. The vines are used for the production of Forts de Latour.
Chateau Latour became one of the first major Bordeaux chateaus to embrace anti-counterfeiting measures with the use of the Prooftag system which is in place on the label, bottle and capsule of all future and current releases.
In 2015, Chateau Latour completed renovations which included new offices, tasting rooms and cellars. In fact, Chateau Latour became the first estate in the Medoc to maintain a cellar solely devoted to keeping magnums and other large-format bottling's dating back to 1900. The new cellars were a necessity as they allowed Latour to retain vast stocks of wines, for later releases.
The Pinault family also own other wineries through their holding company the Artemis Group. In Burgundy, they own Domaine d’Eugenie, previously known as Domaine Rene Engel. The vines are located in the Vosne Romanee appellation in the Cote de Nuits. Late 2017, marked another addition to their holdings in Burgundy when they purchased Clos de Tart for a record-setting price of more than 30 Million Euros per hectare!
In the Northern Rhone Valley, they own Chateau Grillet, which prior to their recent sale had been owned by the same family since 1830!
In July 2013, the family added to their list of vineyards with the purchase of Araujo Estate wines, in the Napa Valley. Araujo has since been renamed Eisele Vineyards. The following year, in 2014, The Artemis Group made their first purchase in the Right Bank, when they invested in Chateau Vray Croix de Gay, Pomerol, Chateau Siaurac, which is located in the Lalande de Pomerol appellation and Chateau Le Prieure in St. Emilion. They sold all their Right Bank vineyards, September 2020 to Suravenir Insurance, the owner of Chateau Calon Segur.