2006 Latour

During my week of château visits to inspect the 2017s in barrel, there was of course one significant, recalcitrant property whose wines will not be released onto the Place de Bordeaux this late spring. Château Latour withdrew after the 2011 vintage, since when they have embarked upon a series of bi-annual mature vintage releases, commencing with stock held in reserve during their respective en primeur campaigns. The latest trio includes 7,000 cases of the 2012 Les Forts de Latour, the first time that the property has released a wine hitherto not commercially available. It will be interesting to see how it fares in the market although the real litmus test will be the market reaction to the maiden release of a Grand Vin post 2011. Funnily enough, when I originally tasted the 2012 Les Forts de Latour from barrel I never attached a score. As I quipped to Frédéric Engerer at the time: what is the point of rating a wine when consumers will not taste it until an undesignated point in the future? I might as well wait. As it turned out, I waited five years. After that vintage I have reviewed the wines because consumers wanted to see the scores for all five First Growths, even if they will have to be patient for one. All three releases have something to offer winelovers, whether they wish to splash out on the 2006 Latour, one of my pick of the Left Bank wines ever since I first tasted it from barrel, or the Forts de Latour or Pauillac. The 2006 Grand Vin was recently released to négoçiants at €450/bottle, which equates to around a 15% premium against current market prices. The 2012 Les Forts de Latour has blossomed in bottle, like a majority of wines that growing season, and was just released at €145/bottle. Finally, there is the 2013 Le Pauillac de Latour, a maligned vintage that may surprise those who erroneously dismiss this season out of hand, which is distributed directly to customers by the château.

Estate manager Frederic Engerer, under whose direction Chateau Latour has been on a hot streak in recent years, described vintage 2007 as his "first solo vinification," having fired his technical director prior to the harvest. As in past years, this tireless perfectionist was still thinking about how he could have made an even better wine. "We didn't have dilution in 2007 but we didn't have thick skins either, and the fruit lacked complexity of aromas and density," Engerer noted. "I wanted to retain the fruit expressiveness, and the danger in making the wine was to get everything at the front of the palate. I did not vinify for structure because it's not a structured vintage." While Engerer is confident that he took the correct approach, his doubt had to do with the quality of the press wine, which was so good and supple that he wondered if he had underextracted. In fact, Engerer has added 16% press wine to the blend (the highest percentage since 1999), compared to a more typical 5% or 6%, and the press wine has contributed body. "The quality of the press proved that the raw material in 2007 was ripe," he said. "Perhaps I could have extracted even more." The good news, Engerer added, is that the 2007 will be cheaper and more accessible early than last year's wine. "Like the 1999, the 2007 was born like a baby with a big smile," which will come as welcome tidings to collectors who don't like to wait 20 years for their first growths to come around.

Perfectionist estate manager Frederic Engerer is probably harder on his own wines than critics are, and he was still agonizing over the young 2006 Latour in early April. Engerer described the harvest as tough (the estate's prime acreage surrounding the winery, called l'Enclos, was affected by some rot for the first time since 1993), as a full degree of potential alcohol was lost after September 10. The wine, says Engerer, stands out today more for its structure than its flesh. Engerer told me that the merlot lacked concentration and grip in 2006, despite the fact that potential alcohol levels had reached as high as 14.5% before the rains came, and was mostly declassified into Les Forts de Latour. "In 2005 and 2004, Latour and Les Forts de Latour are like brothers," said Engerer, "but in 2006 it's more like the big brother and the little sister." Engerer normally uses a good bit of Latour press wine in Les Forts de Latour "to gain length" but in 2006, he told me, it would have dominated the fruit of Les Forts. As to Latour, the index of total polyphenols (indice de polyphenols totaux), or IPT, was a very high 76 (compared to 72 in 2005), and no saignee was done. The grand vin includes a high 86% cabernet sauvignon, 13% merlot and 1% cabernet franc. Engerer believes the wine will smooth out somewhat in barrel "but it won't go from black to white." He believes the wine lacks the creamy texture of the 2005 "and even the 2004" but is buoyed by its whiplash of a finish. As in recent years, I rate Latour among the superstars of the vintage, although this vintage was hard to read in the early going.