2004 Les Forts de Latour

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.

Estate manager Frederic Engerer has overseen the production of a Latour for the ages, but he cautions that the 2005 is still a rather extreme vintage in the context of this great Pauillac property. "In 2003 it was the aromas that were at the yellow line," he told me. "In 2005 it was the alcohol. We had some cabernet sauvignon at 13.9%, which is unheard of here. This was the first year we tasted the cabernet berries in the vines and actually swallowed them." The wine in barrel today has an alcohol level of 13.4% but the early impression was of a powerful, austere Pauillac that was still sorting out its components, and whose tannic clout will require a good 15 years of bottle aging. Much of the concentration here came from evaporation of water in the grapes during the first half of September. "We lost the equivalent of ten hectoliters per hectare in the space of ten days," Engerer noted; the ultimate yield was 46 hectoliters per hectare. By the way, here in a nutshell is why the first growths in 2005 are going to be priced at nosebleed levels: "The price of our 2000 is 550 euros today, and the 2003 is 575," said Engerer. "But the market is dry: there are only 250 cases of Latour from the 1995 through 2004 vintages being offered today on the Bordeaux market. So we can't exactly give away our 2005."

According to estate manager Frederic Engerer, the volume of fruit in the Medoc was large in 2004 due to the short crops of the two previous years, but the vines had enough energy in 2004 to ripen their full loads. Latour devoted literally twice as many man-hours to eclaircissage (in late July) as it had done in 2003. There were plenty of polyphenols in 2004, Engerer noted (the IPT is 70, as in 2002-higher than the 65 measured in vintages 2003 and 2000), despite the fact that the skins were thinner than in 2003. Latour practiced a gentle extraction, at temperatures not exceeding 27oC, as this estate has done for the past five or six years. In any event, there were very few pips in the grapes in 2004, and thus less chance of extracting bitter tannins, Engerer added. Latour harvested its merlot during the last week of September, then held off on picking the cabernet until October 7. The harvest did not finish until October 19, making 2004 one of the longest harvests in the history of the estate. The cabernet was unusually ripe, with potential alcohol levels ranging from 12.5% to as high as 13.6%. The blend is a relatively high 89% cabernet, plus 10% merlot and 1% petit verdot and cabernet franc.