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Latour 2009

Pauillac, First Growth

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Tasting Notes
This is supremely Latour, muscular, deeply rooted, with a wall of tannins hiding the rich blackcurrant, cassis and black cherry fruits. Feels the youngest of the five First Growth 2009s we are tasting, like it is barely getting going, with the focus on subdued power at this point. Chewy tannins, concentrated and sculpted, with a muscular architecture, fully expressing the powerful terroir of this spot in southern Pauillac. Will take its time, with a long future ahead - absolutely confirming the excellence of my tasting of this wine a year ago, although far more closed than the other wines in this lineup - be sure to really give it time in a carafe if drinking any time soon. A day with the bottle open but not carafed would not be insane.100% new oak, Penelope Godefroy vineyard director, Frederic Engerer director. Score: 98 Jane Anson, Inside Bordeaux Maturity: 2024-2050 03 August 2022
Classic Pauillac power and finesse, packed with brambled fruits, hedgerow earthiness, exuberant while being controlled and carefully delivered. This has shoulders and backbone, and is impossible to ignore. Still in its primary phase so zero need to rush, but you are going to get more joy from this 2009 than you will with the 2010 vintage for at least the next five years. Penelope Godefroy vineyard director at the time, 100% new oak. Although they had not begun conversion at this point, things were moving in that direction - horses had been reintroduced within the vineyard as of 2008, and all chemical weedkillers had been stopped in the 1990s. The first biodynamic experiments took place in this vintage, but just over 3ha of vines. Still being sold En Primeur at the time, so relatively widely available. Score: 100 Jane Anson, Inside Bordeaux Maturity: 2021-2046 24 November 2021
This is still closed, although a softening of the tannins is apparent. It has a gorgeous nose full of Pauillac power and finesse, with brambled fruits and touches of hedgerow as the Cabernet Sauvignon count heads upwards. The fresh core is clear from start to finish, giving that high-wire feeling that makes great Médocs so thrilling. There's a sense of drama to the cassis fruits, controlled but with impact and a sense of purpose, leading to a chewy finish. This is barely bedded down and has the shoulders and backbone to carry it for years. Don't approach it yet. Score: 99 Jane Anson, Decanter.com Maturity: 2024-2046 07 February 2019
Dark and chocolatey with a lot of richness, but also a cool herbal freshness this is a very impressive Medoc wine that's already delicious to drink. Very long, surprisingly supple finish for this château. A perfect wine. Drink or hold. Score: 100 James Suckling, JamesSuckling.com Maturity: 2019+ 17 October 2019
A breathtaking combination of dried flowers and minerals, with dark fruits such as currants and blackberries. Full-bodied, with fabulous fruit concentration, yet its compacted. Velvety tannins. So much fruit and beauty. It's the quality of the tannins that are magic. It is the famous 1959 all over again. Amazing. Try in 2022. Score: 100 James Suckling, - Maturity: 2022+ 15 February 2012
This is incredibly floral on the nose, with violet and lilac as well as dark and ripe raspberry and blueberry. Full-bodied, with a dense and incredibly rich palate yet held back and in reserve. Such precision and beauty. It lasts for minutes on the palate. This reminds me of the 1990, but better made and better raised. It is really the style of Latour, where the tannins grab you at the end. This will most likely be a perfect wine Score: 97 - 100 James Suckling, Wine Spectator 01 April 2010
Deep garnet colored, the 2009 Latour is unashamedly youthful with bold blackcurrants, black cherries and warm plums notes plus nuances of cedar chest, aniseed, beef drippings, truffles and tapenade with a waft of tilled black soil. Full, concentrated and powerful in the mouth, it has a rock-solid frame of super ripe, grainy tannins and fantastic freshness, finishing very long and wonderfully minerally. Just a baby—this needs time! Score: 100 Lisa Perrotti-Brown MW, Wine Advocate, RobertParker.com Maturity: 2022-2080 14 March 2019
The 2009 Latour is endowed with a simply magnificent nose with intense blackberry and cassis fruit laced with minerals and graphite, extremely focused to the point of overwhelming the sense. Wow. The palate is medium-bodied with filigree tannin, multilayered black fruit infused with crushed stone and a hint of white pepper, though it clams up towards the finish as if to say, not yet. Outstanding. This is Latour firing on all cylinders. Score: 99 Neal Martin, Wine Advocate, RobertParker.com Maturity: 2024-2070 01 March 2019
Tasted at the château. Very deep purple colour. The nose is very well defined with scents of small blackberry, boysenberry, cold granite and just a hint of pencil lead. Great clarity and expression here. This is a majestic Latour, utterly pure, wonderful minerality showing through, very fine tannins and incredible poise. Blackberry, touches of briary, coiled up energy towards the finish, utterly focused with that tannins leaving an off-dry finish with bewitching persistency. There is paradoxically weight and weightlessness...sorry to be so cryptic, but that is how it is! A monumental Latour that constitutes one of the greatest wines of the vintage. Tasted March 2010. Score: 98 - 100 Neal Martin, Wine Advocate, RobertParker.com 30 March 2010
Deep purple-ruby. Pungent floral and spice notes enliven complex aromas of dark plum, cocoa and minerals. Large-scaled and juicy, with lively acidity giving sharp definition to the uncommonly deep, pure flavors of black fruits, forest floor and dark spices. The impressively ripe, powerful finish features youthfully chewy tannins and outstanding persistence. This big boy will require a lot of patience: forget about it in the cellar for at least 15 years. Score: 96 Stephen Tanzer, Inside Bordeaux 01 July 2012
This seems to come full circle, with a blazing iron note and mouthwatering acidity up front leading to intense, vibrant cassis, blackberry and cherry skin flavors that course along, followed by the same vivacious minerality that started things off. The tobacco, ganache and espresso notes seem almost superfluous right now, but they'll join the fray in due time. The question is, can you wait long enough? Best from 2020 through 2040 Score: 99 James Molesworth, Wine Spectator Maturity: 2020-2040 31 March 2012
A blend of 91.3% Cabernet Sauvignon and 8.7% Merlot with just under 14% natural alcohol, the 2009 Latour is basically a clone of the super 2003, only more structured and potentially more massive and long lived. An elixir of momentous proportions, it boasts a dense purple color as well as an extraordinarily flamboyant bouquet of black fruits, graphite, crushed rocks, subtle oak and a notion of wet steel. It hits the palate with a thundering concoction of thick, juicy blue and black fruits, lead pencil shavings and a chalky minerality. Full-bodied, but very fresh with a finish that lasts over a minute, this is one of the most remarkable young wines I have ever tasted. Will it last one-hundred years? No doubt about it. Can it be drunk in a decade? For sure. Proprietor Francois Pinault and his director, Frederic Engerer, have pulled out all the stops to produce one of the most monumental Latour’s ever made. Score: 100 Robert Parker, Wine Advocate, RobertParker.com 01 March 2012
The 2009 Latour has off the charts concentration in addition to the highest level of tannin ever measured at the estate. The final blend was somewhat unusual in that it consists of 91.3% Cabernet Sauvignon and 8.7% Merlot, and clocked in at 13.7% alcohol (even higher than the 2003). Possibly a 100-year wine, it boasts an inky/black/purple color as well as an extraordinary perfume of super-intense blue and black fruits, graphite, and a liqueur of rocks-like minerality. Enormously full-bodied yet at the same time incredibly fresh, vibrant, and precise, it coats the mouth, and builds incrementally to skyscraper-like texture, and a whopping finish that lasts over a minute. This remarkable wine reveals a certain accessibility already, yet one senses that it will be even richer, more nuanced, and fuller by the time it is bottled in mid-2011. A monumental wine from a monumental vintage in the Medoc, this is our children's children's children's elixir. (Tasted once.) There is no doubting that Director Frederic Engerer and owner Francois Pinault are thrilled with what they have accomplished at Latour. These three wines are hugely different in price, but all are extraordinary. Score: 98 - 100 Robert Parker, Wine Advocate, RobertParker.com 01 April 2010
(a 91/9 blend of cabernet sauvignon and merlot; 13.7% alcohol; 87 IPT; roughly 38% of the total crop) Purple ruby. Flamboyant aromas of red cherry, cassis, graphite and cedar soar from the glass. Then very dense, supple and smooth, with a noble texture and great breadth to its red cherry, blackcurrant, spicy plum, ink and cedar flavors. Finishes with exceptionally velvety tannins and a very ripe, almost perfumed quality to the red and black fruit flavors. A large-scaled and clearly great wine that calls to mind a combination of the 1982 and 2005 Latours. That said, while this wine shares some of the 2009 Mouton's voluptuous perfume, it lacks the extraordinary finesse of either the 2009 Lafite or Margaux, but is much more powerful than both of those wines. Millionaires will have a lot of fun over the years comparing the first growths of 2009 and arguing over which is the best. Score: 97 - 100 Ian D'Agata, Inside Bordeaux 01 May 2010
Managed by the dynamic Frederic Engerer who is unrelenting in his pursuit of excellence. Latour is always a contender for wine of the vintage, particularly so since 2000, though the quantity released is carefully managed by the Chateau. Deep dark crimson. Brooding nose, holding back a lot even after lots of coaxing then starting to reveal shiny blackberry fruit and minerals. Very caressing, satiny texture. Plenty of blueberry fruit, complexity and power lurking below the surface. Exceptionally ripe with accessible, pure cassis fruit. Long fruit finale and exquisite mouthfeel. Very silken indeed with enveloped tannins. Finishes with grip and power that serve to balance but not dominate. Score: 97 - 99 Albany Vintners, - 01 April 2010
(91.3% Cabernet Sauvignon, 8.7% Merlot) Black red, huge concentration of black fruits and great purity, wonderfully fragrant nose with wild violets and lifted freshness, great length and perfect texture, totally Latour and all the fruit and vineyard will come out over the years. Drink 2018-45. (19.5 points) Score: 19 - 20 Decanter, Decanter.com Maturity: 2018-2045 01 April 2010
Very deep and glowing crimson. Very rich and sweet ink on the nose. Wonderfully gorgeous and lush on the front palate. Then lots of heat and richness. Amazing power of fruit on the mid palate gives way to extremely pronounced tannins. Transparent, mellifluous, spicy. Violets, says Engerer. Dry Taylors port? Latour backbone. Glossy ripe fruit. Candied violets. Maybe in 03 we went overboard. Enormous energy. Very impressive. 13.7% Alc Score: 19 Jancis Robinson MW, JancisRobinson.com Maturity: 2022-2045 31 March 2010

Tasting Notes

This is supremely Latour, muscular, deeply rooted, with a wall of tannins hiding the rich blackcurrant, cassis and black cherry fruits. Feels the youngest of the five First Growth 2009s we are tasting, like it is barely getting going, with the focus on subdued power at this point. Chewy tannins, concentrated and sculpted, with a muscular architecture, fully expressing the powerful terroir of this spot in southern Pauillac. Will take its time, with a long future ahead - absolutely confirming the excellence of my tasting of this wine a year ago, although far more closed than the other wines in this lineup - be sure to really give it time in a carafe if drinking any time soon. A day with the bottle open but not carafed would not be insane.100% new oak, Penelope Godefroy vineyard director, Frederic Engerer director.

Score: 98

Jane Anson, Inside Bordeaux Maturity: 2024-2050 03 August 2022

Classic Pauillac power and finesse, packed with brambled fruits, hedgerow earthiness, exuberant while being controlled and carefully delivered. This has shoulders and backbone, and is impossible to ignore. Still in its primary phase so zero need to rush, but you are going to get more joy from this 2009 than you will with the 2010 vintage for at least the next five years. Penelope Godefroy vineyard director at the time, 100% new oak. Although they had not begun conversion at this point, things were moving in that direction - horses had been reintroduced within the vineyard as of 2008, and all chemical weedkillers had been stopped in the 1990s. The first biodynamic experiments took place in this vintage, but just over 3ha of vines. Still being sold En Primeur at the time, so relatively widely available.

Score: 100

Jane Anson, Inside Bordeaux Maturity: 2021-2046 24 November 2021

This is still closed, although a softening of the tannins is apparent. It has a gorgeous nose full of Pauillac power and finesse, with brambled fruits and touches of hedgerow as the Cabernet Sauvignon count heads upwards. The fresh core is clear from start to finish, giving that high-wire feeling that makes great Médocs so thrilling. There's a sense of drama to the cassis fruits, controlled but with impact and a sense of purpose, leading to a chewy finish. This is barely bedded down and has the shoulders and backbone to carry it for years. Don't approach it yet.

Score: 99

Jane Anson, Decanter.com Maturity: 2024-2046 07 February 2019

Dark and chocolatey with a lot of richness, but also a cool herbal freshness this is a very impressive Medoc wine that's already delicious to drink. Very long, surprisingly supple finish for this château. A perfect wine. Drink or hold.

Score: 100

James Suckling, JamesSuckling.com Maturity: 2019+ 17 October 2019

A breathtaking combination of dried flowers and minerals, with dark fruits such as currants and blackberries. Full-bodied, with fabulous fruit concentration, yet its compacted. Velvety tannins. So much fruit and beauty. It's the quality of the tannins that are magic. It is the famous 1959 all over again. Amazing. Try in 2022.

Score: 100

James Suckling, - Maturity: 2022+ 15 February 2012

This is incredibly floral on the nose, with violet and lilac as well as dark and ripe raspberry and blueberry. Full-bodied, with a dense and incredibly rich palate yet held back and in reserve. Such precision and beauty. It lasts for minutes on the palate. This reminds me of the 1990, but better made and better raised. It is really the style of Latour, where the tannins grab you at the end. This will most likely be a perfect wine

Score: 97 - 100

James Suckling, Wine Spectator 01 April 2010

Deep garnet colored, the 2009 Latour is unashamedly youthful with bold blackcurrants, black cherries and warm plums notes plus nuances of cedar chest, aniseed, beef drippings, truffles and tapenade with a waft of tilled black soil. Full, concentrated and powerful in the mouth, it has a rock-solid frame of super ripe, grainy tannins and fantastic freshness, finishing very long and wonderfully minerally. Just a baby—this needs time!

Score: 100

Lisa Perrotti-Brown MW, Wine Advocate, RobertParker.com Maturity: 2022-2080 14 March 2019

The 2009 Latour is endowed with a simply magnificent nose with intense blackberry and cassis fruit laced with minerals and graphite, extremely focused to the point of overwhelming the sense. Wow. The palate is medium-bodied with filigree tannin, multilayered black fruit infused with crushed stone and a hint of white pepper, though it clams up towards the finish as if to say, not yet. Outstanding. This is Latour firing on all cylinders.

Score: 99

Neal Martin, Wine Advocate, RobertParker.com Maturity: 2024-2070 01 March 2019

Tasted at the château. Very deep purple colour. The nose is very well defined with scents of small blackberry, boysenberry, cold granite and just a hint of pencil lead. Great clarity and expression here. This is a majestic Latour, utterly pure, wonderful minerality showing through, very fine tannins and incredible poise. Blackberry, touches of briary, coiled up energy towards the finish, utterly focused with that tannins leaving an off-dry finish with bewitching persistency. There is paradoxically weight and weightlessness...sorry to be so cryptic, but that is how it is! A monumental Latour that constitutes one of the greatest wines of the vintage. Tasted March 2010.

Score: 98 - 100

Neal Martin, Wine Advocate, RobertParker.com 30 March 2010

Deep purple-ruby. Pungent floral and spice notes enliven complex aromas of dark plum, cocoa and minerals. Large-scaled and juicy, with lively acidity giving sharp definition to the uncommonly deep, pure flavors of black fruits, forest floor and dark spices. The impressively ripe, powerful finish features youthfully chewy tannins and outstanding persistence. This big boy will require a lot of patience: forget about it in the cellar for at least 15 years.

Score: 96

Stephen Tanzer, Inside Bordeaux 01 July 2012

This seems to come full circle, with a blazing iron note and mouthwatering acidity up front leading to intense, vibrant cassis, blackberry and cherry skin flavors that course along, followed by the same vivacious minerality that started things off. The tobacco, ganache and espresso notes seem almost superfluous right now, but they'll join the fray in due time. The question is, can you wait long enough? Best from 2020 through 2040

Score: 99

James Molesworth, Wine Spectator Maturity: 2020-2040 31 March 2012

A blend of 91.3% Cabernet Sauvignon and 8.7% Merlot with just under 14% natural alcohol, the 2009 Latour is basically a clone of the super 2003, only more structured and potentially more massive and long lived. An elixir of momentous proportions, it boasts a dense purple color as well as an extraordinarily flamboyant bouquet of black fruits, graphite, crushed rocks, subtle oak and a notion of wet steel. It hits the palate with a thundering concoction of thick, juicy blue and black fruits, lead pencil shavings and a chalky minerality. Full-bodied, but very fresh with a finish that lasts over a minute, this is one of the most remarkable young wines I have ever tasted. Will it last one-hundred years? No doubt about it. Can it be drunk in a decade? For sure. Proprietor Francois Pinault and his director, Frederic Engerer, have pulled out all the stops to produce one of the most monumental Latour’s ever made.

Score: 100

Robert Parker, Wine Advocate, RobertParker.com 01 March 2012

The 2009 Latour has off the charts concentration in addition to the highest level of tannin ever measured at the estate. The final blend was somewhat unusual in that it consists of 91.3% Cabernet Sauvignon and 8.7% Merlot, and clocked in at 13.7% alcohol (even higher than the 2003). Possibly a 100-year wine, it boasts an inky/black/purple color as well as an extraordinary perfume of super-intense blue and black fruits, graphite, and a liqueur of rocks-like minerality. Enormously full-bodied yet at the same time incredibly fresh, vibrant, and precise, it coats the mouth, and builds incrementally to skyscraper-like texture, and a whopping finish that lasts over a minute. This remarkable wine reveals a certain accessibility already, yet one senses that it will be even richer, more nuanced, and fuller by the time it is bottled in mid-2011. A monumental wine from a monumental vintage in the Medoc, this is our children's children's children's elixir. (Tasted once.) There is no doubting that Director Frederic Engerer and owner Francois Pinault are thrilled with what they have accomplished at Latour. These three wines are hugely different in price, but all are extraordinary.

Score: 98 - 100

Robert Parker, Wine Advocate, RobertParker.com 01 April 2010

(a 91/9 blend of cabernet sauvignon and merlot; 13.7% alcohol; 87 IPT; roughly 38% of the total crop) Purple ruby. Flamboyant aromas of red cherry, cassis, graphite and cedar soar from the glass. Then very dense, supple and smooth, with a noble texture and great breadth to its red cherry, blackcurrant, spicy plum, ink and cedar flavors. Finishes with exceptionally velvety tannins and a very ripe, almost perfumed quality to the red and black fruit flavors. A large-scaled and clearly great wine that calls to mind a combination of the 1982 and 2005 Latours. That said, while this wine shares some of the 2009 Mouton's voluptuous perfume, it lacks the extraordinary finesse of either the 2009 Lafite or Margaux, but is much more powerful than both of those wines. Millionaires will have a lot of fun over the years comparing the first growths of 2009 and arguing over which is the best.

Score: 97 - 100

Ian D'Agata, Inside Bordeaux 01 May 2010

Managed by the dynamic Frederic Engerer who is unrelenting in his pursuit of excellence. Latour is always a contender for wine of the vintage, particularly so since 2000, though the quantity released is carefully managed by the Chateau. Deep dark crimson. Brooding nose, holding back a lot even after lots of coaxing then starting to reveal shiny blackberry fruit and minerals. Very caressing, satiny texture. Plenty of blueberry fruit, complexity and power lurking below the surface. Exceptionally ripe with accessible, pure cassis fruit. Long fruit finale and exquisite mouthfeel. Very silken indeed with enveloped tannins. Finishes with grip and power that serve to balance but not dominate.

Score: 97 - 99

Albany Vintners, - 01 April 2010

(91.3% Cabernet Sauvignon, 8.7% Merlot) Black red, huge concentration of black fruits and great purity, wonderfully fragrant nose with wild violets and lifted freshness, great length and perfect texture, totally Latour and all the fruit and vineyard will come out over the years. Drink 2018-45. (19.5 points)

Score: 19 - 20

Decanter, Decanter.com Maturity: 2018-2045 01 April 2010

Very deep and glowing crimson. Very rich and sweet ink on the nose. Wonderfully gorgeous and lush on the front palate. Then lots of heat and richness. Amazing power of fruit on the mid palate gives way to extremely pronounced tannins. Transparent, mellifluous, spicy. Violets, says Engerer. Dry Taylors port? Latour backbone. Glossy ripe fruit. Candied violets. Maybe in 03 we went overboard. Enormous energy. Very impressive. 13.7% Alc

Score: 19

Jancis Robinson MW, JancisRobinson.com Maturity: 2022-2045 31 March 2010

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