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1966 Château Latour Grand Vin - France, Bordeaux, Médoc, Pauillac (12/11/2021)
This pours medium garnet though still fairly deep ruby at the core. Impressive color for its age. The nose is deep, rich, complex and powerful soaring with notes of pencil shavings, cassis, dark rich cherry, charcoal, celery seed, polished lacquered furniture, a touch of green tobacco leaf and violets. Just a gorgeous aromatic expression. The palate is also just mesmerizing, entering with an abundance of dark fruit. There is still amazingly some firm tannic grip in the mid-palate. The length on the finish is incredibly impressive lingering for several minutes and replaying just about every component on the nose. What a phenomenal, impressive wine. So powerful and aging so gracefully.
This bottle was acquired recently at auction with an upper-shoulder fill. Not a bad fill considering it’s age. Otherwise the bottle looked good in pictures and indeed in person. The capsule had very mild corrosion and required some peeling, with a very saturated cork. The durand did it’s job well and extracted most to cork, only leaving a small piece behind in the neck which was easily extracted with the worm. The importer tag was from Bellevue, Washington. I’d speculate this bottle then made it’s way to BC or Alberta, given the proximity where it was cellared, as this was acquired from an Alberta based auction house. The bottle was absolutely correct in every way I can imagine.
What really struck me with this wine was it’s incredible power and youth while still being complex and open. It feels like it must have been a monster in it’s youth given some seemingly new oak derived complexity, the deep, rich fruit, and the remaining tannin. The palate is a master piece in Firth Growth Bordeaux combining tannin, rich fruit, and acid in incredibly harmony. I’ve never had a 1959 or 1961, but have had a lot of old wine, and given the reputation for power in those vintages I’m impressed with how this too has plenty of power. Probably a bit of an overlooked vintage, lurking in the shadows of the more famous peers. An incredible tasting experience. If anyone happens to own this wine and it’s in good condition I’d say you’ll get plenty of drinking pleasure today but this will have no problem going another 50 years. (96 pts.)