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Tasting Notes
Unmistakable Latour in an exceptional vintage, so you should expect a muscular, sculpted and confident wine that is bursting with Pauillac character, showcasing the brilliance of this clay-gravel location overlooking the Gironde Estuary. Still just emerging from its primary stage but just about ready to drink if you give it long enough in a carafe - although it will be even better with another decade. Think blackberry, bilberry, cassis, charcoal, slate, sage, incense, cigar box, grilled cumin and a ton of black chocolate shavings. 100% new oak for ageing, Penelope Godefroy vineyard director, Frederic Engerer director. Tasted a few times this year, and here I am adding to the two notes that are already on this site, one at 100 points, and one at 98 points.
Critic Scores
Average Score
James Suckling
Charles Curtis MW, Decanter
More reviews and scores
A blend of 91.3% Cabernet Sauvignon and 8.7% Merlot, the opaque garnet-black colored 2009 Latour prances from the glass with showy notes of black cherry preserves, blueberry pie, and black currant jelly, leading to an undercurrent of camphor, clove oil, and cinnamon toast. The medium to full-bodied palate is decadently stacked with black and blue fruit layers, framed by super-plush tannins and jaw-dropping tension, culminating in a fragrant finish that just goes on and on. It’s flat-out delicious right now but promises to reward the patient.
You can sense the ripeness of the sunny vintage in the nose, with its joyous red berries, tobacco leaf, oyster shell, vanilla smoke, mint, cigar box and dark chocolate. Sensuous on the palate, with silky tannins and sweet, ripe, pure fruits, the wine is all power, grace, symmetry and elegance. This is a sexy vintage of Latour that you can really feel, as the wine rests and expands on your palate. Yes this is young. So if you are going to open a bottle, give it 2-3 hours of air, or wait another decade. This is one of the memorable tasting experiences that was impossible to spit.
An incredible wine in every way, the 2009 Château Latour displays the ripe, sexy style of the vintage while still offering classic Latour power, density, and regalness. Currants, spicy wood, smoked tobacco, graphite, and ample minerality all define the bouquet, and it's full-bodied, with incredible density, perfectly integrated, ripe, polished tannins, and a finish that leaves no doubt about the insane quality of this wine. Based on 91.3% Cabernet Sauvignon and 8.7% Merlot, and checking in at 13.7% alcohol, it's drinking brilliantly today given its incredible texture and balance, and I suspect it has another 50-60 years of prime drinking. This is as good a Bordeaux as I've had and is as good as wine gets.
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About the producer
One of Bordeaux’s five First Growths, as classified in 1855, Ch. Latour is among the most famous addresses in Pauillac and the world. The estate is renowned for its long-ageing, powerful and structured wines.