Chateau Latour Vertical in ATL 1964-2003

Thanks to Todd French and Roy Hersh for coming in for this one. Also to Charles Curtis from Christies and John Pagnucco who is the Grand Regent of the Commanderie in the US.
A great time was had by all!

On Sunday, 30 or so lucky souls were invited to a vertical tasting of Chateau Latour hosted by Mark Taylor. Yves Durand was the leader of the tasting. A rare special treat. The wines were remarkably consistent. Intense. All had first growth breed and length.

Flight One

Glass 1- Intense fruit on the nose with a slight amount of spirit in the beginning. This integrates and this wine becomes a real beauty. Dark fruit. Great intensity with first growth presence on the palate. Long and satisfying finish. Incredible!
My guess was 2002.

Glass 2- This is very young. The nose shows lots of coffee from the elevage and sexy fruit. A less powerful year of Latour here. The palate is complex but still shows a fair amount of restraint. First growth intensity here. The finish is very nice. Not the longest however. My guess was 1998.

Glass 3- Extraordinarily young. Ripe. There is a special complexity here and intensity. It is concentrated but the mid palate complexity and finish is absolutely stunning. This is my favorite of the first flight and incredibly long. Special. My guess was 2003.

Glass 4- My glass was corked. My neighbors glass which was from a different bottle showed a fantastic elegant young with fabulous intensity and length. It was on the early part of the development curve. My guess was 1996.

Glass 5- This is so young. Really wound up in the structure at this point. Lots of coffee from the elevage. Chocolate too. This wine is intense and very long. Fantastic. My guess is 2001

Glass 6- This nose is the first that has shown some elements of tobacco and cedar shavings that you find in secondary development. Intense and young. Beautifully structured and incredibly long. I loved this! I thought it was the 2000.

1. Chateau Latour 2001
2. Chateau Latour 1998
3. Chateau Latour 2003
4. Chateau Latour 2000
5. Chateau Latour 2002
6. Chateau Latour 1996


Young beauties. What a treat.



Flight Two

Glass 1- An absolutely stunning nose. Dark fruit. Cedar shavings from a pencil. Complex tobacco note. Elegant in many ways but very powerful. The palate shows ripe fruit wrapped in a complex robe of tobacco spice. Very long finish. My guess was 1982.

Glass 2- Younger nose. More coffee type notes. Very intense nose of dark fruit and cigar notes. Mix of tobacco and cedar shavings. The palate is intense and takes some time to really come out. Explosive finish. My guess was 1990

Glass 3- A Bern’s type of wine. An almost indescribable complexity to the nose. Older ripe fruits, cedar shavings and tobacco. The palate is the most open of the entire tasting. Showing an extra level of complexity. A shower of tobacco notes. Incredibly long. I guessed the 1966 because of the age and complexity. Crazy!

Glass 4- This is the most elegant wine. Not powerful at this point. Beautiful darker fruit. Tobacco. A wonderful finish that lasts for a long time. Fantastic. My guess was 1970.

Glass 5- This wine was horribly oxidized. It had some stewed fruit. Don’t know if it was provenance or just the bottle is now struggling. The oldest wine to me. I guessed 1964.

Glass 6 - This wine had almost no nose for the longest time. A very sexy and balanced palate that is dominated by the fruit. The tannins are very slightly drying. Incredibly long finish. A baby. My guess was 1995


1. Chateau Latour 1970 – a pleasant surprise. This is fabulous.
2. Chateau Latour 1990
3. Chateau Latour 1982 – shocking how open and deep this wine was showing. One of my top Bordeaux experiences ever.
4. Chateau Latour 1964
5. Chateau Latour 1966 - this bottle was off
6. Chateau Latour 1995

A very special flight of wines. I probably won’t get this chance again.
It was great to see some old friends and meet some new ones. It really is what these tastings are about.

Santé.

Thanks Don. I only own a single bottle of Latour (the 2001), so it’s nice to get an update.

Great notes! Thanks for sharing. I have a single bottle of 1998!

Robust indeed Don, good for y’all. Any photos?

Glenn,

Frenchie has a bunch. He had a better flash than I did. Roy took a ton of pics both days so he should have a few.
Here is a pic of a mix of bottles. Roy has some pics of the attendees.

I’ve got my notes, and those from Leoville Las Cases as well, plus photos, but I’m traveling back home today, so I’ll get them all up maybe tomorrow.

Tough work, but someone has to do it…

Any thoughts on where the 1982 is on its aging curve? For a long time, it still had fairly massive tannins that needed to be shed–are the tannins finally softening?

Bruce

Because this was a larger group, two bottles of each wine were poured, instead of one, so we didn’t all drink from the same bottle. The '82 on our side was not as impressive, apparently, as that of the other side (who were given a corked wine during the first flight, so I guess all is fair). I had this wine 2 years ago at Mark’s '82 tasting and it absolutely killed - for sure the sample this time paled in comparison to that one, at least on our side of the table.

Bottle variation is both fascinating and frustrating Organised a Haut Brion v La Mission vertical in London a few years ago where each table had a bottle of wine from vintages 78,82,85 88 89 90 and 96.
The wine of the night on our table was predictably the HB 89 but on the other table the LMHB 89 was far superior to any other. These vertical tastings are of interest but as we all know are not definitive in any way

Good data for the 01 and 02. I will hold those. I tried a 99 not long ago and it was still unevolved. Remember back not long ago when Latour was king, then the China thing happened and Lafite became king (in price at least).

So it goes to prove the old saying, there are no great wines, only great bottles. Good to keep that in mind when laying out serious cash for labels (wines).

Love that 01 Latour. It was the bottle that got me into wine. About $100 back in the day.

Thank you for sharing!

I guess I’m a little surprised that flight 1 was the young wines, I believe in drinking oldest to youngest so you can appreciate notes of the older wines a little more.

Anyway, looks like a fantastic event.

Hmmm… Todd and Don (and I) were on the same side of the table.

My take matched Don’s; the 1982 was wide open for business and my WOTN.

Indeed; all we have are data points. Sometimes the data points are reliable and tightly-clustered; other times the data points are all over the chart. And yes, sometimes you get a great 1989 La Mission Haut Brion that will beat out a good-but-not-great 1989 Haut Brion.

Bruce

what a great tasting and thanks very much for the notes. Looks like Latour really does a great job in most every vintage here. Was always my favorite of the 1sts….

Great tasting guys! Glad to see you are taking good care of Mr. Hersh, as usual.

I have had a couple stunning bottles of that 1990 Latour (including one alongside the '89…the '90 was a lot better), and still have a couple left for worthy occasions.

Cheers,
Blair

Thanks for the notes! I too only own a 2001 Latour, which I think will rest a bit longer before I indulge.

I have 01’s …yes!

Not so fast. There’s a reason why none of the vintages between 1983 and 1989 were included.