2001 Les Forts de Latour

Latour took about ten days longer than usual to harvest in 2003. "We took our time," said manager Frederic Engerer, noting that Latour normally picks in two weeks. The merlot was harvested beginning on September 8 to preserve its aromatic freshness, with the cabernet sauvignon coming in between September 22 and 30. Thanks to the thorough ripeness of the skins, said Engerer, "we didn't have to extract too much, and we were able to retain the freshness of the fruit." Engerer added that Latour has been able to consistently ferment at lower temperatures in recent years by "pushing the harvest for riper fruit." The 2003 features a very low 3.15 grams per liter of acidity. Although most early tasters, including this one, consider the 2003 Latour to be one of the top three or four wines of the vintage, Engerer was surprisingly measured in his early assessment of the wine, comparing it to the '89 Latour. Yes, the cabernet reached 13% potential alcohol, which is unprecedented at Latour, he told me. But Engerer also felt that the heat in June and July (even before the sustained period of 100+ degree heat during the first half of August) burned off some of the sugars that normally develop during that period-sugars that are precursors to aromatic complexity. "Two thousand was a perfect growing season," Engerer added, "but 2003 was brutally hot."

"In 2000 we had great raw material, so we were not afraid to extract a lot," said manager Frederic Engerer. "But in 2002 we had to be very careful. It was especially important to eliminate all the pieces of dead stems on our sorting tables, especially after the destemming. As it turned out, there was a very small proportion of pips [grape seeds, which can give wine a bitter quality when they are crushed] this year so perhaps we could have extracted more." There will be only 105,000 bottles of 2002 Latour, compared to 165,000 from the 2001 vintage. I asked Engerer to compare the young 2002 to the estate's 2000. "The big difference is in aromatic complexity. The 2000 is more opulent, more sympathique The 2002 never ripened as completely, and yet the wine has density and concentration similar to that of the 2000."

Latour installed a new sorting table in the winery in time for the 2001 harvest and brought in its grapes in the smaller cagettes (Previously the sorting table was in the vines, where, according to estate manager Frederic Engerer, "the work was less serious.") The merlot was less dense and structured in 2001, said Engerer; as a result, the young 2001 blend is higher in pH and lower in acidity than the 2000. As the grapes were not as strong, the new vintage called for gentler handling than that of 2000, which Engerer told me "was more forgiving of overextraction." The past trio of vintages has brought exciting quality at Latour, as a host of small improvements have been made here in recent years. "Even as recently as 1996, we did no leaf-pulling," noted Engerer. "There was also less rigorous crop thinning; plus, today we sort before and after the destemming." For the first time, Latour vinified without any stems in 2001. "Yes, the tannins are tight and austere, but they're not hard like those in 1988 and 1986," said Engerer.