1971 Latour &amp; 1971 Les Forts de Latour

BY NEAL MARTIN&nbsp;|&nbsp;JULY 08, 2024Wine is
often a moving target. The greatest tend to be shape-shifters in the glass.
Just when you think you’ve got a wine pinned down, it mutates into something
different, and you end up crossing out words in your carefully written note.
It’s like a child toying with you, playing peek-a-boo. Now you see me…now you
don’t. This brings me to this pair of wines served completely blind by Frédéric
Engerer at the château. (I should preface this by saying that he does not only
pour the estate’s wines, and in fact, these were mixed with a third bottle from
the Right Bank.) That said, we were clearly playing “home,” not “away,” for the
first pair: the one on the left was better than the one on the right. After what
felt like hours trying to guess the vintage, it was revealed as 1971. However, I
had basically spent the entire time claiming that the Deuxième Vin on the left
was superior to the Grand Vin on the right, the 1971 Latour generally
considered one of the few genuinely successful wines on the Left Bank. Here’s
the thing. Even after the wines were revealed, I was not the only person to favor
the Les Forts de Latour, but with about half an hour of the evening left, it
was as if a hidden switch was flicked. The Grand Vin soared so that soon, the
Les Forts de Latour was in its rear-view mirror. The mercurial nature is part
of our fascination with great wine, which makes writing notes more difficult
than it already is, but anyway…<img alt="" src="https://s3.amazonaws.com/images.vinous.com/uploads%2F1720191649545-Latour+1971_copy+%281%29.JPG">The 1971
Latour is a wine I have drunk three or four times over the years. It is considered
one of the few successes on an otherwise patchy Left Bank vintage. Decanted and
served blind, the 1971 refuses to play ball for the first couple of hours. It’s
a bit dull and sultry like a teenager refusing to come down from his bedroom.
Then, having toyed with you, it suddenly manifests wonderful aromas of black
fruit, cedar, graphite and tobacco, gaining more and more intensity, manifesting
the grandeur one associates with Latour. Likewise, its initially closed palate
turns in its heel and reveals finely chiseled tannins, a sense of symmetry and
precision that distinguishes it as one of the great Latour wines of the 1970s. This
is one of those occasions where the final sips are the best. Magnificent. 95/Drink
2024-2044. 

The 1971
Les Forts de Latour is a vintage I encountered once before in London. This
example, poured blind at the château against the Grand Vin, is much better.
This is immediate on the nose, the fruit with traces of more raspberry and wild
strawberry than the Grand Vin, bright and open-knit. Pencil-shaving hints emerge
with time in the glass. The palate is malleable and beautifully balanced, with
a fine bead of acidity and a little more flesh on the finish. Just as the
Latour soars, the Les Forts de Latour seems to run out of energy and fades in
the glass. Nevertheless, it remains a mightily impressive wine for a
53-year-old Deuxième Vin. Well-kept bottles continue to give pleasure. 92/Drink
2024-2034.© 2024, Vinous. No portion of this article may be copied, shared or re-distributed without prior consent from Vinous. Doing so is not only a violation of our copyright, but also threatens the survival of independent wine criticism.

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