2009 Les Forts de Latour Pauillac Bordeaux France Wine Tasting Note
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Smoke, tobacco, cigar box, earth and red fruit notes create the nose. It is easy to discern the level of fruit and maturity in the nose. On the palate, the wine offers freshness, ripe, dark red fruits, tobacco leaf, spice and chewy, ripe, soft tannins. There is the structure for further aging, yet you can pop a cork today, should you wish. 4,054 Views Tasted Sep 20, 2019This just keeps getting better with bottle age, like all great wines. Full bodied, with rich textures, firm tannins and layers of salty rocks, cassis and blackberries. You can drink this now with an hour of age, or wait a bit. It is difficult to believe this is the second wine, as it's better than many Classified Growths. 4,423 Views Tasted Sep 29, 2018Full bodied, round, plush and polished, with a real freshness to the fruit along with richness and concentration to all the wine to expand and longer. The aromatics are equal to the mouth feel. Still young, this will add more complexity in the years to come. I've tasted this wine a few times since it was first shown in barrel and this is the best showing yet for this vintage. It's amazing to consider, but this is a better wine than Latour produced in many vintages during the 80's and 70's. 5,790 Views Tasted Jul 16, 2016Blackberry, smoke, wet earth and wood scents open to a sweet, ripe, lush, round Pauillac filled with juicy, crisp cassis and blackberry. From a blend of 65.1% Cabernet Sauvignon, 32.3% Merlot, 1.9% Petit Verdot and a tiny bit of Cabernet Franc, the wine reached 13.5% ABV. This wine is better than many vintages of Chateau Latour produced in 80’s and early 90’s. 5,185 Views Tasted May 3, 2012 |
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.