1990 Château Latour Grand Vin- France, Bordeaux, Médoc, Pauillac (10/26/2014)
Back in Chicago for meetings, opened to watch the World Series. As the old adage goes, “there are no great wines, just great bottles.” The '90 Latour has always been a bell weather for that adage from my perspective. I have had stunning bottles, and so-so bottles. Tonight was somewhere in the middle.
The '90 Latour is still very youthful, especially on the nose. Very drinkable, it shows some blue cheese and dark red fruit on the nose. Very deep red in the glass, with a long finish that really lasts. I have three more bottles, will be interesting to see where they all come out. (94 pts.)
As it’s my anniversary year I have three of the top Bdx from 1990, Margaux, CB and Latour (actually, Latour is courtesy of my late Dad). Several months ago I attended a tasting where some generous people served a 1990 flight with two of them, Latour and CB, along with Mouton and Lafite. The wines were single blind. In the flight there were two clear favorites, one silky and plush and one firm and seemingly very young. Being an optimist, I picked the silky one as CB and the firm one as Latour, but in reality they were Mouton and Lafite
The others were certainly good but not in the same class that day. Hopefully that was one of the not so good Latour bottles and mine will be better. In any case when I open one of mine I will make sure not to taste it blind, and I’m confident my brain will fill in for any small deficiencies.
The ones I’ve opened were nowhere ready to drink (for the most part), but I still read notes indicating that the wine was opened and greatly enjoyed. Definitely a YMMV wine at this point, given variations in storage conditions (both at retail and at the consumer level).
I’ve never been lucky with this (including a few recently ex-chateau) - it’s a nice wine, but not a great Latour in my opinion. Much rather drink 1990 Lynch…all a bit perplexing.
Tasted many times over the years, and similar experience with the 90 Latour, both great and so-so bottles. The last one took on a slight orange rind quality I tend to associate with much older Latour. Color was bricking.
Odd experiences. Had three bottles of this so far - first one 10 years ago and then 2 more in the last 4 years…every one an absolute killer. No doubt about the greatness of each bottle. Never heard of any variability in this wine until this thread.
I have had some great ones, but the worst one was actually poured at Latour the one time I visited there (with Jeff Leve) back in 2010. Relative to a number of other 1990’s tasted at various estates over a 3 day period, this 1990 Latour was clearly somewhat disappointing. It just lacks some of the weight and depth of great Latours as well as other great 1990’s. Of course, it is still a terrific wine, but I can understand why some think that Latour missed the mark a bit.
This thread has me worried–we have a 90 Latour lined up for dinner Saturday night.
I’ll post my impressions for the sake of science, but they may need to be taken with a grain of salt as this will be my first Latour … although it will be opened along side the 90 Margaux as a reference point.
