A Peek Into Château Latour Through Their Third Wine

Today’s Story: Château Latour

Château Latour is a First Growth wine estate located in Pauillac on the Left Bank of Bordeaux, with roots tracing back to 1331. Though not a wine estate from the outset, Château Latour gets its name from the fortified tower built there by Gaucelme de Castillon. Until the end of the 16th century, the estate was a jointly held lord’s domain rented out to farmers. Though the property was not entirely planted to vine at that time, they did produce wines and, without the necessary storage, consumed them each year. During the early 1700s, Château Latour came under ownership of Alexandre de Ségur and he (and later his son Nicolas-Alexandre) greatly expanded the family’s winegrowing holdings. By the middle of the 18th century, Château Latour actually became known for its wine and due to its quality became 20 times more expensive per bottle than the average Bordeaux wine at the time. It even became a favorite of Thomas Jefferson. Over time Latour has continued to produce exceptional and long-lived wines, with the current estate producing arguably some of the greatest wines in their history.

Today Château Latour consists of 92 hectares planted to vine, with 47 hectares of the best vineyards, known as l’Enclos, surrounding the Château. The vineyards are planted to 76% Cabernet Sauvignon, 22% Merlot, and 2% Cabernet Franc and Petit Verdot. The deep, nutrient-poor gravel soil of the estate is perfect for forcing the vines to struggle and dig deep to a clay sublayer for water. The estate transitioned gradually to full organic farming and became certified by Ecocert, with a large percentage of l’Enclos farmed adhering to biodynamic principles as well. Château Latour produces three wines, which include the Grand Vin (typically $750-800+ per bottle), a second wine Les Forts de Latour (typically $250-300+ per bottle), and a third wine Pauillac de Latour (typically $100 per bottle).

To learn more about this historic estate and its magnificent wines, check out the website here.

Today’s Wine: 2014 Pauillac de Château Latour

50% Cabernet Sauvignon, 43% Merlot, 7% Petit Verdot; 13% ABV

The 2014 Pauillac de Château Latour is opaque deep ruby in color with purple hues. A bit funky right out of the bottle, this needed 4 hours in the decanter to really come to life and I drank it over an additional 3-4 hours. The nose showcases aromas of cassis, blackberry, redcurrant, cigar box, graphite, scorched earth, lilac, dried green herbs, gravel, and milk chocolate. Once on the palate, the wine displays notes of black cherry, strawberry, plum, sweet tobacco, pencil shavings, smoke, eucalyptus, rocky earth, and a hint of bell pepper. Overall it’s somewhat medicinal in nature. The wine is medium-bodied with medium (+) acidity, medium dusty tannins, and a medium (+) length finish. Needs some cellar time to fully come around.

Price: $100. I would love to see this priced closer to $75 from a value perspective. The $100 price tag is in a very competitive range, and there are quite frankly a number of other wines that punch above this one at that price. Maybe this will get better with bottle age, we shall see.