1989 Château Latour Grand Vin Pauillac Bordeaux France Wine Tasting Note
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Almost a bit too much on the classic side with its focus on leafy tobacco, pepper, spice, greenery, pepper, and herbs. With a bit of rusticity on the palate, the wine finishes on the austere, leaning-to-tart side of the style range. Drink from 2023-2030. 3,491 Views Tasted Jul 4, 2023Tangy fruit and medium bodied with more power, depth and complexity on the nose than on the palate. The fruit has a regal quality in its cassis character, but the finish has some dryness and is far too short for a First Growth, especially in a good vintage. 6,543 Views Tasted Jan 7, 2015Traditional and classic in style, this medium bodied, elegantly styled wine lacks the depth, weight and complexity expected of a First Growth, especially considering the quality of the vintage. The wine offered freshness coupled with complexity in the nose, along with soft textures showing its class, but the short finish and lack of density stops the score from going higher. 6,990 Views Tasted Dec 17, 2013Fully mature, with tawny edges to the color, this is a medium bodied, finesse styled vintage of Latour. There is a silky, elegance to the wine, but it lacks the level of concentration needed to add to the cassis, truffle, cranberry, earth, tobacco, cigar box and spicy, blackberry character. There is no hurry to drink the wine, but I’m not sure there is any reason to wait for further development. 9,095 Views Tasted Nov 22, 2012This expressed a perfume of blackberry, cassis, mocha, truffle, spice, rhubarb, and earth. Light in weight for a Latour from a top vintage, this wine is fully mature and should be enjoyed sooner, rather than later. 10,934 Views Tasted Jun 20, 2010This wine, with its cassis, black fruit, spice and tobacco nose is already very open. While elegant and with some complexity, this is light for a Latour from a good year. The wine has reached maturity and should be drunk up. 12,038 Views Tasted Nov 15, 2009With a perfume of blackberry, cassis, mocha and truffle, this tannic, medium weight Latour finished with spicy Cabernet. 9,326 Views Tasted Mar 12, 2009 |
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.