Chateau Latour 2009

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Reviewed by: Robert M. Parker, Jr.

A blend of 91.3% Cabernet Sauvignon and 8.7% Merlot with just under 14% natural alcohol, the 2009 Latour is basically a clone of the super 2003, only more structured and potentially more massive and long lived. An elixir of momentous proportions, it boasts a dense purple color as well as an extraordinarily flamboyant bouquet of black fruits, graphite, crushed rocks, subtle oak and a notion of wet steel. It hits the palate with a thundering concoction of thick, juicy blue and black fruits, lead pencil shavings and a chalky minerality. Full-bodied, but very fresh with a finish that lasts over a minute, this is one of the most remarkable young wines I have ever tasted. Will it last one-hundred years? No doubt about it. Can it be drunk in a decade? For sure. Proprietor Francois Pinault and his director, Frederic Engerer, have pulled out all the stops to produce one of the most monumental Latour’s ever made.

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Reviewed by: Neal Martin

Tasted at the chateau. Very deep purple colour. The nose is very well defined with scents of small blackberry, boysenberry, cold granite and just a hint of pencil lead. Great clarity and expression here. This is a majestic Latour, utterly pure, wonderful minerality showing through, very fine tannins and incredible poise. Blackberry, touches of briary, coiled up energy towards the finish, utterly focused with that tannins leaving an off-dry finish with bewitching persistency. There is paradoxically weight and weightlessness...sorry to be so cryptic, but that is how it is! A monumental Latour that constitutes one of the greatest wines of the vintage. Tasted March 2010.

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Reviewed by: Robert M. Parker, Jr.

The 2009 Latour has off the charts concentration in addition to the highest level of tannin ever measured at the estate. The final blend was somewhat unusual in that it consists of 91.3% Cabernet Sauvignon and 8.7% Merlot, and clocked in at 13.7% alcohol (even higher than the 2003). Possibly a 100-year wine, it boasts an inky/black/purple color as well as an extraordinary perfume of super-intense blue and black fruits, graphite, and a liqueur of rocks-like minerality. Enormously full-bodied yet at the same time incredibly fresh, vibrant, and precise, it coats the mouth, and builds incrementally to skyscraper-like texture, and a whopping finish that lasts over a minute. This remarkable wine reveals a certain accessibility already, yet one senses that it will be even richer, more nuanced, and fuller by the time it is bottled in mid-2011. A monumental wine from a monumental vintage in the Medoc, this is our children's children's children's elixir. (Tasted once.) There is no doubting that Director Frederic Engerer and owner Francois Pinault are thrilled with what they have accomplished at Latour. These three wines are hugely different in price, but all are extraordinary.

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Reviewed by: Neal Martin

Tasted at the chateau. Frederic Engerer told me that the 2009 had a comparatively long fermentation of up to two weeks. It delivers a show-stopping bouquet: classic seductive Pauillac with ebullient black fruits infused with graphite, crushed stone, pencil box, cedar and a touch of mint. With aeration there is a suggestion of something more exotic...wild honey or apricot blossom. The palate is full-bodied with supple but powerful tannins, beautifully integrated oak, perhaps a little edgier thanks to its redoubtable tannic finish. Majestic. Tasted November 2011.

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Reviewed by: Neal Martin

Served blind at the Southwold 2009 tasting. The Latour '09 has a comparatively exotic bouquet with macerated small dark cherries, mango sorbet, and blackcurrant and vanilla pod. There is a floral component that lends it a Margaux like veneer. The palate is medium-bodied with firm grip on the entry. There is a pleasing saline edge, firm grip with a pleasing crescendo towards the opulent but controlled, delineated finish. Perhaps it is showier than its peers, but why not? And there is enormous grip and weight on the finish, making this an impressive Latour for long-term ageing. Tasted January 2013.

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Reviewed by: Lisa Perrotti-Brown

Deep garnet colored, the 2009 Latour is unashamedly youthful with bold blackcurrants, black cherries and warm plums notes plus nuances of cedar chest, aniseed, beef drippings, truffles and tapenade with a waft of tilled black soil. Full, concentrated and powerful in the mouth, it has a rock-solid frame of super ripe, grainy tannins and fantastic freshness, finishing very long and wonderfully minerally. Just a baby—this needs time!

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Reviewed by: Ian d'Agata

(a 91/9 blend of cabernet sauvignon and merlot; 13.7% alcohol; 87 IPT; roughly 38% of the total crop) Purple ruby. Flamboyant aromas of red cherry, cassis, graphite and cedar soar from the glass. Then very dense, supple and smooth, with a noble texture and great breadth to its red cherry, blackcurrant, spicy plum, ink and cedar flavors. Finishes with exceptionally velvety tannins and a very ripe, almost perfumed quality to the red and black fruit flavors. A large-scaled and clearly great wine that calls to mind a combination of the 1982 and 2005 Latours. That said, while this wine shares some of the 2009 Mouton's voluptuous perfume, it lacks the extraordinary finesse of either the 2009 Lafite or Margaux, but is much more powerful than both of those wines. Millionaires will have a lot of fun over the years comparing the first growths of 2009 and arguing over which is the best.

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Reviewed by: Neal Martin

The 2009 Latour is very classic in style with black fruit, undergrowth, cedar, graphite and smoke, although I find at the moment, the 2009 Mouton-Rothschild has a tad more complexity. The palate is medium-bodied with supple tannin, a fine line of acidity, linear and focused, more controlled than Mouton-Rothschild but determined to exert its own terroir over the imprimatur of the growing season. This is an outstanding Latour with ineffable depth and breeding, but the 2010 Latour might well turn out better. Tasted at BI Wines & Spirits' Ten Year On tasting.

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Reviewed by: Neal Martin

The 2009 Latour is endowed with a simply magnificent nose with intense blackberry and cassis fruit laced with minerals and graphite, extremely focused to the point of overwhelming the sense. Wow. The palate is medium-bodied with filigree tannin, multilayered black fruit infused with crushed stone and a hint of white pepper, though it clams up towards the finish as if to say, not yet. Outstanding. This is Latour firing on all cylinders. Tasted blind at Farr Vintners’ 2009 Bordeaux tasting.

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Reviewed by: Stephen Tanzer

Deep purple-ruby. Pungent floral and spice notes enliven complex aromas of dark plum, cocoa and minerals. Large-scaled and juicy, with lively acidity giving sharp definition to the uncommonly deep, pure flavors of black fruits, forest floor and dark spices. The impressively ripe, powerful finish features youthfully chewy tannins and outstanding persistence. This big boy will require a lot of patience: forget about it in the cellar for at least 15 years.