France · Pauillac

Château Latour

Château Latour is the most powerful and age-worthy of Bordeaux's First Growths, its grand vin sourced almost entirely from the 47-hectare Enclos vineyard — a single contiguous parcel of young Günzian gravel on a gentle rise immediately south of the town of Pauillac. The Enclos is unique in Bordeaux: its youngest, finest-draining gravel was deposited as the Gironde's last geological advance, making it some of the least evolved — and most mineral — terroir in the Médoc. Cabernet Sauvignon accounts for approximately 80% of the blend; the remainder is Merlot, Petit Verdot, and Cabernet Franc. Ownership passed from the Pearson Group (which purchased the estate in 1963) to Allied Lyons, then to François Pinault's Artémis group in 1993. Pinault withdrew the estate from en primeur in 2012 — a landmark decision that sent the market a signal about the limits of the futures system and established Latour's wines as scarce, held-back releases at prime drinking maturity. This means recent vintages arrive on the secondary market several years after other First Growths, adding to Latour's mystique and scarcity. Latour's reputation rests on its ability to produce excellent wine in off-vintages: the 1961, 1966, 1978, and 2004 are legendary precisely because Latour succeeded where others struggled. The great vintages — 1945, 1961, 1970, 1982, 2009, 2010 — are among the longest-lived wines in Bordeaux.