2003 Château Latour Grand Vin Pauillac Bordeaux France Wine Tasting Note
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Aromatically as you might expect, the wine displays a very ripe, roasted ostentatious nose packed with flowers, cappuccino, dark red fruits, smoke, wet forest floor and spice box notes. There is a sweetness to the fruits emanating from the incredibly hot conditions of the vintage. On the palate, the wine is pure intensity, power and richness. Grabbing you, demanding to get noticed, as if you could avoid the massive wall of fruit that's in your face. Atypical, which makes for a unique expression of Latour, it is fabulous to taste and experience. But its best days are clearly in its future. 5,342 Views Tasted Aug 24, 2020Truffle, smoke, cigar box, cassis, cedar wood and wet earth explode in the nose. The wine is fleshy, rich, plush, round and mouth filling, with concentration and complexity. The silky, smooth tannins and palate staining levels of fruit feel older than their true age, but there is so much going here, you barely notice. 8,891 Views Tasted May 13, 2015This has for me, been the most perplexing vintage of Latour. Some bottles have been off the charts. Other tastings have been shorter and drier. Fortunately, this bottle was on target, firing on all cylinders with its salty, fresh blackberry, cassis, truffle, cedar and tobacco filled personalty. Rich, dense, showy and long, the wine really leaves an impression. 9,366 Views Tasted Jan 7, 2015Dark in color, with a flamboyant nose of licorice, espresso, blackberry, jam, earth, plums and spice in the nose. Rich, full bodied, fat, deep and intense, with air the wine continued to soften, becoming, silky and exotic in texture. You can sense the ABV, but there is such a wealth of fruit and ripe tannins, it does not matter, the lengthy finish fills your palate. 2003 Latour is a bit of a head scratcher. I’ve tasted this wine at least half a dozen times this year, with varying results. Some bottles like this wine have been stunning. Others have been much drier and more austere on the palate. This note is for the best bottles. 8,677 Views Tasted Dec 18, 2013Inky in color with intense aromatics of black raspberry, cassis, cedar, anise, truffle, chocolate and mint. Rich, intense and concentrated in the mouth. The long finish coated your senses. This is a stellar wine! 16,485 Views Tasted Jun 30, 2009Exotic, amazing depth, intense purity, opulence and balance. The layers of powerful yet silky, dark fruit must tasted as well as felt to be belived in this classic Bordeaux wine. The seamless fin ish lasts well over a minute! 19,171 Views Tasted Jun 21, 2007 |
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.