2005 Les Forts de Latour

These are the latest releases from Château Latour. In 2011, Latour announced they would no longer sell wines en primeur, but would instead offer customers vintages the estate deemed ready to drink. I tasted these wines on visits to the château in July 2015 and April 2016.

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.

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."