2010 Château Latour, Pauillac, Bordeaux

The final blend is just over 90% Cabernet Sauvignon, with most of the balance being Merlot.

Just over a third of the harvest made it into the grand vin to give a wine of startling concentration and purity. It has lovely, forward cassis fruit and a hint of spice on the attack. The texture is fresh but not overly tannic, and there is a surprisingly sweet, silky feel cloaking the powerful extract. It is best to wait another decade before trying this, but it will last a half-century beyond that. Moderate temperatures followed a flowering disrupted slightly by cool weather and rain. The summer was dry and sunny, if somewhat cool. The Merlot was picked beginning on the 20th of September and the Cabernet on the 4th of October.

Drink 2032 - 2082

I get the same peony and violet aromatics here as I did in Forts de Latour. This is powerful, muscular, not even getting close to being ready. The tannins crowd in from the mid palate onwards, extremely physical in the way they make their presence felt. Behind them, if you give the wine enough time in the glass, it gives black pepper spice, pencil lead, slate and compressed earth, along with cassis, bilberry and all the tight compact dark-berried fruits you can think of. Don't even consider this for another five years at least. This is a monumental Latour and a flashing signpost for how good this vintage is in Pauillac.

Drink 2025 - 2050

The 2010 Latour is conspicuously deep in colour. It has an intellectual, intense and captivating bouquet with mineral-rich black fruit, graphite and crushed rose petal scents. Utterly spellbinding. The palate is the real deal. Heavenly balance, perfect acidity with seamlessly integrated new oak, there is an enthralling crescendo towards a finish that is simply as good as Bordeaux gets. Impeccable.

Drink 2028 - 2070

The 2010 Latour is deep garnet in color, and—WOW—it erupts from the glass with powerful crème de cassis, Black Forest cake and blackberry pie scents plus intense sparks of dried roses, cigar boxes, fragrant earth and smoked meats with aniseed and crushed rocks wafts. Full-bodied, concentrated and oh-so-decadent in the mouth, it has a firm, grainy texture and lovely freshness carrying the rich, opulent fruit to an epically long finish. It is incredibly tempting to drink now, but I suspect this hedonic experience isn't a scratch on the mind-blowing, otherworldly secrets this time capsule will have to reveal given another 7-10 years in bottle and continuing over the following fifty years++.

Drink 2024 - 2080

Deep crimson looks only slightly more concentrated than Les Forts. So much more nuanced and interesting than Les Forts! Full of life and intrigue. It has such fruit concentration that you could, if you really wanted, almost drink it now with chewy food. This is really quite a triumph. Kerpow! But no specious sweetness. Most impressive.

Drink 2023 - 2053

Unbelievably pure, with distilled cassis and plum fruit that cuts a very precise path, while embers of anise, violet and black cherry confiture form a gorgeous backdrop. A bedrock of graphite structure should help this outlive other 2010s. Powerful, sleek and incredibly long. Not perfect, but very close. Best from 2020 through 2050.