During my recent visit to Château Latour with director Hélène Genin in April, I was able to taste their 2023 releases, which include the 2018 Pauillac, the 2017 Les Forts de Latour, and their Grand Vin 2015 Château Latour. As has been the case for many years now, Latour opts to release their wines when they deem them ready instead of the year after the harvest in the En Primeur system.

Coming from riper, sunnier vintages, both the 2018 Pauillac and 2015 Château Latour are ripe and opulent, with plenty of classic Latour structure. The 2015 is a beast of a wine that I wouldn’t be surprised to see evolve along the lines of the 2009. It clearly offers pleasure today, yet it’s going to benefit from another 4-5 years of bottle age. As I write in the note, I’m always shocked by the quality of the Pauillac release, and there may not be a better Troisième Vin out there. This has classic Pauillac character, is concentrated, and truthfully, isn’t far off the quality of the 2017 Les Forts de Latour. Lastly, the 2017 comes from a terrific, often underrated vintage and shines for its balanced, classic style. I’d be thrilled to drink bottles today, but this has another two decades or more of overall longevity ahead of it.

Happy hunting.

By Jeb Dunnuck
Founder & Wine Critic
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