In Excelsis: Château Latour 1887 – 2010
BY NEAL MARTIN |
Having toured through the five First Growths in my “Bordeaux In Excelsis” article, I now turn the spotlight onto Château Latour. Though the “first” in “First Growth” denotes Latour’s official status as per the 1855 Classification, personally speaking, the word has alternative meanings.
Château Latour is the first estate I ever visited...
Trip one. Day one. Visit one. It must have been around summer 1997. Memories are vague, although I can remember touring the vat-room with my Japanese employers watching women wrap each bottle ensuring that the tower emblem was visible. Most people wait years to visit a First Growth. This twenty-something was clearly on the fast-track program.
Château Latour is the first First Growth I ever tasted...
The 1958 Latour to be exact – lunch at pinstriped, royally approved merchant Justerini & Brooks. My heart skipped a beat as I sat down and read the menu. I had waited a long time to pop my First Growths cherry and presumed it would never happen since I could ill-afford the prices, even back then. Then the 1958 Latour was served. It was perfectly respectable for an off vintage and two decades on, it remains my solitary encounter.
Château Latour is the first wine I ever awarded a perfect score...
The1961 Latour at Avenue restaurant in Soho hosted by my friend Claire and a mutual Japanese pal. The bottle was standing on the table when I arrived, a double-take upon spotting the vintage, our munificent host informing the ullaged bottle had come with commensurate discount and cost a couple of hundred quid. The level made no difference. Upon inhaling the bouquet, I immediately knew I had entered a different realm to anything I had consumed before. It ticked all the criteria outlined in my previous article on what makes a ‘perfect’ wine. Dumbfounded by its structure and ineffable complexity, it redefined what wine could be and duly jotted down my first 100-point score.
Over my career I have composed several articles on Latour, though not one in recent years. So, here I will detail its history, the vineyard and vinification, and review almost 40 vintages culled from two separate tastings spanning a dozen decades, both iconic and forgotten, in order that Vinous readers have up-to-date information on how the wines compare and how they are evolving. The purview is historical and my intention is to pen a companion piece that will focus on modern vintages and techniques. This article dwells on how Latour came to be. Readers are free to skip this section if they wish however, many events and techniques from the past relate to the present day. Moreover, the article explains the background to some of the wines in this report, placing them within context of what was happening at the property at the time. It also answers the question: “Was there any Syrah planted at Latour?”
History
Having toured through the five First Growths in my “Bordeaux In Excelsis” article, I now turn the spotlight onto Château Latour. Though the “first” in “First Growth” denotes Latour’s official status as per the 1855 Classification, personally speaking, the word has alternative meanings.
