2017 Château Latour, Pauillac, Bordeaux

Tasted blind. Deep ruby colour. Subtle and fragrant nose with wonderfully delineated black fruit and savoury spice. The impression is savoury yet youthful. Intense drive and focus is immediate on the palate. There is such energy and vibrancy yet the cassis fruit at the core remains ripe and rich. Mouth-coating tannins would detract from this refinement if it weren’t for their ripe and fine-grained nature. A remarkable feat in this vintage to find such ripeness and structure without excess. Harmonious and long.

Drink 2027 - 2042

Based on 92.1% Cabernet Sauvignon, 7.8 % Merlot, and a splash of Petite Verdot, the 2017 Chateau Latour spent 16 months in new barrels and hit 13.3% natural alcohol with a pH 3.7 and an IPT of 66.

It's a classic, ageworthy Latour offering a deep purple/ruby hue, textbook Latour graphite, lead pencil, minerality, and cassis-driven aromatics, building tannins, and a beautiful sense of power married to elegance. Flawlessly balanced, medium to full-bodied, and with the class that this estate is known for, hide bottles for 7-8 years and enjoy over the following 3-4 decades.

Drink 2027 - 2060

The 2017 Latour is just starting to open aromatically. Medium in body, with tannins that have begun to soften, the 2017 is super-expressive and inviting today. It’s a charming, relatively accessible young Latour that is all about finesse and understatement. Bright saline notes and lifted floral top notes convey class.

Drink 2025 - 2047

The 2017 Latour, which was bottled mid-June and mid-July, has a tightly wound bouquet with black fruit, pencil lead and a strong marine influence. This is utterly compelling. The palate is medium-bodied with fine tannins, what you may call an "athletic" Latour. There is no "fat" here, just pure black mineral-infused fruit with quintessential Pauillac notes of graphite and a touch of cedar on the persistent finish. Superb.

Drink 2024 - 2060

It's fairly unusual in 2017 to find the bright blue-violet reflections around the rim of the wine that you find in years like 2010 and 2016, but it is here in abundance. Still extremely young, knitted, closed up, holding tight to its cassis and bilberry fruits at this point. This was the first year when they were in full organics, although not certified until 2019. It's a big-framed Latour and you can see that it is going to need a good long while before softening its Pauillac tannins; at least a decade on this showing. Lovely rich deep flavours here with great dollops of black spice. It feels majestic and full of Latour signature of menthol, liquorice, slate and earth. One of the best 2017s tasted. 18 months ageing, building up to 100% new oak.

Drink 2027 - 2050

A seriously pretty Latour, not a phrase often associated with this most concentrated of wines, with real lyricism. Beautifully layered, with muscles that have a cushion of air underneath them. As during En Primeur, its sculpted character highlights the impact of biodynamic farming, but bottle ageing has seen it take on the customary concentrated layers of this Pauillac First Growth. The signature pencil lead, crayon, mint leaf and crushed rocks are here in abundance, along with cassis and bilberry fruit, kissed with rosebud and peony florality, and textured slate tannins that slow things down through the mid palate.

A delicious wine, vibrant, balanced, decades ahead of it, even if the soft sculpting of the vintage means it will be ready to drink earlier than 2016 or 2018 on either side. First year in full organics, although not certified until 2019, and the first without Cabernet Franc in the blend. 100% new oak. No frost on the Grand Vin plots, in a year where many parts of Bordeaux were impacted, proof again of what a favoured site this is.

Drink 2027 - 2045

A blend of 92.1% Cabernet Sauvignon, 7.8% Merlot, and 0.1% Petit Verdot.

The 2017 Latour has a deep garnet-purple colour. It sashays out with showy notes of warm cassis, mulberries, and Morello cherries, followed by emerging tertiary hints of unsmoked cigars, rose oil, cardamom, and star anise, with a waft of iron ore. The medium-bodied palate is elegantly styled and mineral-laced, featuring loads of exotic sparks and velvety tannins, finishing on a lingering anise note. Beautiful! While it's in a nice place right now, another 2 to 4 years in bottle should allow for even more of this gorgeous, emerging perfume. It will easily cellar for another 30 years beyond that.

Drink 2026 - 2060

Ripe and very powerful aromas of black licorice, currants and violets. Full-bodied, dense and flavorful with lots of very new, flashy wood. Sexy and gorgeous. Round and polished tannins. Superb wine for the vintage.

Try after 2028

The 2017 Latour is a blend of 92.1% Cabernet Sauvignon, 7.8% Merlot and 0.1% Petit Verdot with 13.3% alcohol and an IPT of 66.

Deep garnet-purple in color, it starts off a little broody before exploding from the glass with powerful scents of ripe blackcurrants, blackberry pie and preserved black cherries plus touches of cedar chest, fenugreek, cumin seed and charcoal with emerging wafts of violets, dark chocolate, star anise and fertile loam. Medium-bodied, this may be one of the most elegant, great Latours ever, revealing layer upon layer of fresh, crunchy black fruits with a vast array of exotic spice and floral nuances, framed by super ripe, super fine-grained tannins, finishing very long with mineral sparks coming through. This is so nuanced and perfumed that I imagine, in 50 years, this wine could be mistaken for a great red Burgundy.

Drink 2026 - 2075