1982 Château Latour Grand Vin Pauillac Bordeaux France Wine Tasting Note

A spell-binding example of the most, consistently stunning wine from the legendary 82 vintage. Everything here is on target, in-place and balanced. There is a wall of ripe, regal, powerful, black and red fruits with a stately air of refinement and aristocracy that coat and fill your palate, leaving with a seamless, 60-second, plus finish. Drink from 2023-2060.

2,938 Views   Tasted Sep 5, 2023

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This could be the wine of the vintage. At 40, that is more than long enough for this stunning wine really stand out from the pack. The incredible volume, depth of flavor, concentration, power, and regal bearing must be tasted to believe and understand. The waves of fruit never stop developing. The more than 60-second, and the seamless finish leaves you speechless. Drink from 2022-2050.

If a wine were a candidate for 101 Pts, this bottle is a clear candidate. Holy FK! I was blown away by the depth, clarity, length and complexity here. The wine has everything you could hope for. A riveting nose, lush, opulent, polished, refined texture and a finish that hits and crosses the 60 second mark.

Clearly in contention for wine of the vintage, the nose, with its roasted deep red and black fruits comes along with a plethora of scents headed by smoke, tobacco, spice, cedar chest and forest leaf. Rich, full-bodied, powerful and intense, the wine perfectly meshes its power with a refined, regal elegance that never seems to quit.

Stunning from top to bottom, and from start to finish, this is a strong contender for wine of the vintage. With mouth coating layers of dark red fruits, tobacco, cigar wrapper, cedar wood and smoked earth aromatics, the wine kicks off with all the right stuff. But it is on the palate where the wine is really on full display. Intensity, length and regal in character, there is a firmness to the structure along with elegance and formality in the finish, which by the way must stick with you for 60 seconds! Thank God I have friends that can afford this. Because it really is a benchmark wine that at close to 30 years of age is almost in the right place for prime time drinking. Well stored bottles should offer pleasure until 2082!

Words cannot do this justice. The wine is incredibly concentrated, powerful, rich and yet, firm, regal, refined and elegant. At a tasting of close to 20 different 1982 wines, this was the wine of the tasting! And that is saying something. The intensity found here, does not quit! There is layer after layer of depth. On the palate, the wine just keeps on going and never quits. Freshness, kingly refinement length and expansiveness are all part of the game. Popped and poured, decanting would have helped. Further cellaring would assist as well. I am sure future generations with well stored bottles, especially in magnum with be drinking this until it's at least 75 years old, or longer!

This wine can be perfection in a bottle. Sadly, while this was close, with its heady perfume, full bodied, concentrated palate presence, it was no cigar. Freshness, layers of perfectly ripe, juicy, cassis, tobacco, cigar box, ash, earth and cedar, at close to 40, this will easily go another 40 years. I wish I showed as young as this wine!

This is so good, the scale should be adjusted to allow for 101 Pts! This is everything a great Bordeaux needs to be with its majestic blend of silk, velvet and power. The exotic nose is compelling, with its cassis, blackberry, tobacco, earth, cigar box, cocoa, and dark chocolate nose. But the real action takes place on your palate. Layer after layer of perfectly ripe, sensuous, powerful fruit coats your palate and stays there, lingering and expanding for over 60 seconds.

This was a very good bottle of a great wine. The experience can be much better, which is saying something, since this was so good. With a nose of fresh herbs, cedar chest, forest floor, cassis, tobacco and spice, the wine is rich, full bodied and filled with fruit, earth and powerful, sensuous textures. There is the perfect blend of silky tannins and power. This is elegance at its best.

Great wines are going to be different in character, but they are not going to get better than this. The wave of fruit that drenches your palate is packed with polished, elegant, lush berries. The nose is a turn on and the finish last over 60 seconds. To use a quote from one of my favorite movies; "The Maltese Falcon," "This is the stuff dreams are made of."

This is the wine of the vintage and one of the wines of the century. As good as it is now, it's almost scary to think how good 2009 could turn out when it's the same age. I am not sure how it happened, but I was able to taste this wine twice in the same month and a third time, not that long ago. I know how lucky I am. However, the point of this is to state that on each occasion, the wine was easily at triple digits in quality! It is remarkably consistent. To plagiarize myself, if aliens came down to earth and wanted a wine to take back to their planet, this is the wine. With textures of refined sensuality, the wine is opulent, flamboyant and exotic. The perfume screams the moment the cork pops with its tobacco, truffle forest, spice box, cigar wrapper, incense and black cherry liqueur notes. The finish builds and expands for over 60 seconds! This is the wine I'd buy, if I hit the lottery tomorrow.

Perfect in every way sums it up nicely. For those that want details, the wine remains deeply colored with a complex fragrance built from spice box, cedar chest, cassis, roasted blackberries, tobacco, flint and forest floor scents. Picture massive amounts of concentrated fruits, ripe, sweet, powerful, round tannins and the texture of velvet and you start to get the idea. Pop a bottle now, or wait 50 years, if you can...

If a wine deserved more than 100 Pts, this bottle was a contender for that honor. One of the clear indicators for a sublime wine is, it starts off great and continues improving and keeps on getting better than you could have imagined. This bottle of 1982 Latour was all that and more! Tobacco, earth, truffle, wet gravel, cassis, blackberry, cedar and spice box was elevated to new level. The intense, perfectly balanced, potent, mouth filling waves of fresh, ripe, pure flavors expanded on your palate for over 60 seconds! Silk and power, with everything in perfect balance and harmony. The wine continued to improve in the glass for hours. This is what great Bordeaux is all about! This was one of those bottles that you remember forever.

With its intense aromatics and incredible concentration, it said hello and kept on talking. Deep, powerful and complex. This has a wonderful purity of fruit and the finish seems lasts over a minute.

Olives, black cherries, herbs, coffee, cassis, minerals and tobacco take over your senses. Still young and concentrated, this powerful, concentrated wine is not close to full maturity. It could outlast most people who own the wine today.

“Oh My God!” This is the type of Bordeaux that brings tears to wine lovers eyes! This was so good, words alone do not do it justice. This amazing wine exploded with a myriad of scents including pepper, walnuts, spice box, cassis, cinnamon, licorice, coffee, truffles and more! And that was the beginning! The palate presence was out of this world! This is so opulent, exotic and rich, it has to be tasted to be believed. The perfect, seamless finish was breath taking filling every nook and cranny in your mouth and waking up all your taste buds and senses. If aliens came to earth and demanded a great wine, they would take 82 Latour!

Wine doesn’t get better than this! Cassis, tobacco, coffee and smoke aromatics jumped from the glass. Very tannic. Extraordinarily concentrated. You could spend all night counting the layers of fruit in this wine. Obviously, very complex. This is a huge wine. Every single taste receptor is awakened by this wine. Layers of ripe, decadent fruit cascade over your palate. My notes say, simply amazing! If wines could be awarded over 100 Pts, this could be it. When this sleeping giant becomes fully awake sometime in the next decade, it might be the wine of the vintage.

A perfume of coffee, licorice, herbs, cedar, chocolate and cassis is easy to find. Dense, palate filling with sweet, ripe tannin to resolve. Deep, multiple layers of opulent, silky, ripe, fruit cascade and glide across your palate. Amazingly soft, lush and open. But as sublime as it is now, don’t let that fool you. It’s holding it’s best charms in reserve.