2000 Château Latour, Pauillac, Bordeaux

Latour has made truly great wines in the past two decades—and this is one of the best. It has fabulous aromas of black truffles, currants, raspberry and dried flowers. Mind-blowing on the palate, it’s an emotional and soulful red.

77% Cabernet Sauvignon, 16% Merlot, 4% Cabernet Franc, 3% Petit Verdot.

It is just ageing at the rim. Savoury and beautiful. Mellow and refined. Bone dry. Racy finish. Kicks up its heels. Not the densest.

Drink 2015 - 2035

14,000 cases were made this year, representing 48% of production.

2000 saw a warm, dry July and August with a small amount of rain from mid-September onward. Composed of 77% Cabernet Sauvignon, 16% Merlot, 4% Cabernet Franc and 3% Petit Verdot, the 2000 Latour has a deep garnet colour and is showing a good amount of evolution, sporting mature notes of fried exotic spices, hoisin, unsmoked cigars and fruitcake with hints of incense, potpourri, cast iron pan and charcuterie. Medium-bodied, soft, plush and savoury in the mouth, it has a long, mineral-tinged finish.

Full medium ruby. Wonderfully sweet, rich aromas of cassis, minerals and bitter chocolate. It is a huge wine with almost painful intensity, solid as a rock and simultaneously utterly sensual and creamy, with great inner-mouth complexity, depth of flavour and a complete absence of rough edges. "Almost too easy today," says Engerer. Sweet notes of roasted nuts and chocolate add to the wine's early appeal.

A powerful, hugely rich Latour with an excellent building finish and perfectly suave tannins. This was the last vintage of Latour with a meaningful percentage 3%) of Cabernet Franc, as the old franc vines were removed after 2000. But Engerer noted that Latour planted 1.5 hectares of Petit Verdot, expected to represent up to 4% of the blend by 2004.

It is hard not to be impressed by the sheer power and muscle on display in this Latour, very much archetypal of the estate at this time, seven years into François Pinault's tenure, with the team under director Frederic Engerer he arrived in 1995, becoming director in 1998) doing everything they could do concentrate flavours, increase precision and texture.

This is beautifully layered, with truffle-laced dark chocolate, espresso, tar and tight cassis flavours and exerts a powerful grip that is clearly going nowhere over the coming decades. A little less nuanced, perhaps, than today's Latour, but this has 3% Petit Verdot that completes the blend—48% of the overall crop in this wine.

Drink 2020 - 2050

The 2000 Latour a relatively abundant 14,000 cases compared to what they produced in 2009, 2008, or 2005) is “packed and stacked.” The extremely rich, black/purple color to the rim is followed by a wine with some subtle smoke, loads of minerals, a hint of vanilla, and plenty of creme de cassis as well as roasted meat and a slight scorched earth character. Broad, savoury, and rich, the wine seems to be about 5 years away from full maturity and should drink well for at least 40-50 more years. A great effort, probably eclipsed only by 2003 and 2009.

Drink 2010 - 2060

Dense and complex, this shows layers of dark fruit with aromas of plum, fig, and blackcurrant overlaid with spice, leather, and earth. It is not as expressive as the 2001 vintage now, but it is more substantial, almost massive. There was rain at Latour on September 19th, which refreshed the grapes, and the team waited until September 22nd to start with the Merlot. The final blend is 77% Cabernet Sauvignon, 16% Merlot, 4% Cabernet Franc and 3% Petit Verdot. It is just beginning to open now and should age gracefully for another 30 or 40 years.

Drink 2022 - 2062

The 2000 Latour is very deep in colour. The nose is backward and demands coaxing from the glass, eventually revealing intense black fruit, cedar, graphite and very subtle Japanese nori aromas. The palate is medium-bodied with an arching structure that grips the mouth. The tannins are a little bolder than the 2001. This unfolds swirl by swirl, with hints of licorice emerging with time, and fanning out audaciously on the finish.

Drink 2023 - 2070