Les Forts de Latour 2010, Chateau Latour

Les Forts de Latour is a great wine and often considered worthy of being a 'super' second classified growth (term often used to refer to a select few second growth Chateau's which are better than the rest) from Bordeaux. A lot of text often refers to it as the second wine of Chateau Latour (Second wines are wines from the same vineyard as the primary label) but, Les Forts de Latour is mainly from a different set of vineyards land parcels, and a separate label in itself. This wine in 2010, as Robert Parker described, exceeded the quality of some of the past vintage of its super special and super expensive sibling, Le Grand Vin Chateau Latour.

Les Forts de Latour takes its name from an historic plot in the ‘Enlos’. The wine was first labelled with this name in 1966 and constant work for the last four decades has taken the quality to be on par with some of the super classified growths from Medoc. In some years, on account of extreme selection, some very quality grapes and Vats meant for the Le Grand Vin make it to Les Forts.

Les Forts de Latour receives the same care as Le Grand Vin in the vineyards and in the wine making with only two notable differences: Parcels of Vineyards for the gapes and the proportion of new barrels (50%) in the maturation.

Vintage 2010
Bizarre as it may sound, the 2010 Les Forts de Latour is also the finest I have ever tasted from this selection, which comes from specific vineyards, not really so much a second wine as just another wine from estate holdings. A blend of 72.5% Cabernet Sauvignon and 27.5% Merlot that represents 40% of the production, this astonishing wine hit 14.3% natural alcohol. Extremely ripe and rich, it reminds me of the 1982 on steroids (and that wine is still drinking great 30 years after the vintage). Sensational notes of graphite, crushed rocks, black fruits, camphor and damp forest notes are present in this expansive, savory, full-throttle wine, which is better than many vintages of the great Latour itself from the past. (That may be a heretical statement, but it’s the truth as I see it.) This wine needs a good 5-6 years of cellaring and should age for three decades at minimum, given the fact that the 1982 is in terrific form and wasn’t this concentrated or prodigious” 97/100, Robert Parker, Feb 2013

“Lustrous dark crimson. Very flashy and attention-grabbing. Lots of sweetness and ripeness. Not classical in style but great freshness and ripe tannin on the end. Lots going on here. A popular choice.” 18/20, Jancis Robinson, Jan 2014