First Growth Bordeaux: LATOUR

In this episode we’re opening three bottles from Chateau Latour: The 1990 Grand Vin, the 2000 Grand Vin, and the 2010 Les Fort de Latour – Latour’s second wine. Some wine collectors consider Chateau Latour to be the alpha among its peers, and especially after the estate was bought by François Pinault, one of the world’s richest men, and big investments were made in the vineyards and to modernize the winery. Chateau Latour, one of the original four First Growth estates from the 1855 classification, is located in Bordeaux just on the Pauillac side on the border with St. Julien. The Latour estate consists of 96.5 hectares, or nearly 240 acres, but the Chateau is centered around a 47 hectare legendary plot of land called L’Enclos. Latour began using stainless steel fermentation back in the 1960’s –decades before other chateaux. An ambitious 4-year long renovation was completed in 2003, and in 2012 Latour built a giant new storage facility and announce it would no longer participate in the “en primeur” market, which is one of the hallmarks of the Bordeaux wine trade. Instead, the Chateau would store its wines in bottle for 8-10 years and then release the wines to the marketplace when it deemed them ready. 2000 Chateau Latour Grand Vin This “Grand Vin” from the classic 2000 vintage is comprised of mostly Cabernet Sauvignon with some Merlot and a bit of Cabernet Franc and Petite Verdot. The wine critics gave the wine anywhere from 97 to 100 points, and average score among the wine community on CellarTracker is 96.5. As all Latours, the wine was fermented in stainless steel vats and spent 18 months in 100% new French oak barrels. 2010 Les Forts de Latour The second wine is typically made from grapes outside the 47-acre L’Enclos vineyard. Other than using only half new oak, the chateau told us the wine is treated exactly as the Grand Vin in order to create an exceptional second label. 1990 Chateau Latour Grand Vin This “Grand Vin” was produced prior to the acquisition by Francois Pinault in 1993. The wine is made up by mostly Cabernet Sauvignon, some Merlot, and a tiny bit Cabernet Franc and Petite Verdot with all the grapes sourced withing the L’Enclos vineyard. The one hiccup was that the cork in our bottle was saturated and there were signs of a very small amount of seepage. The fill level was good, however, the wine ended up not being flawed. Conclusions In this section of the video we compare and contrast the three bottles and share our conclusions about Chateau Latour. Viewers also get a short glimpse into what happens when the “official” recoding of Our Pour Decisions ends and we all share the wines over dinner. Table of Contents 00:00 Introduction 02:57 Map Video 04:16 Welcome Stacey! 05:09 2000 Chateau Latour Grand Vin 08:18 2010 Les Forts de Latour 11:56 1990 Chateau Latour Grand Vin 15:02 Conclusions