1970 | Chteau Latour | Pauillac

Introduction

Red Wine: 1970 | Chteau Latour | Pauillac

A very big-boned wine of great density. Some very strong menthol character with a touch of liquorice too and pretty dry on the finish.

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Producer: Chteau Latour

Ratings: V | 94 JG | 96

Vintage: 1970

Size: 750ml

ABV: 12.5%

Varietal: Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot

Country/Region: France, Bordeaux

A very big-boned wine of great density. Some very strong menthol character with a touch of liquorice too and pretty dry on the finish.

Reviews:

• Vinous: The 1970 Latour must be one of the most unpreditacble vintages ever produced at the estate. It is prone to wild mood swings! This bottle has a deep colour, slightly turbid, with thin bricking on the rim. The bouquet is powerful, quite feral with maybe some VA, scents of sandalwood and Lapsong Souchang infusing the black fruit, becoming more gamey with aeration. The palate is medium-bodied but quite dense, not a Latour of finesse, but plenty of horsepower. It is almost like a vintage car, but the engine is too powerful. With slightly rough tannin on the finish, this masculine and broad-shouldered Latour is compelling, albeit not without fault.

• John Gilman: Chteau Latour back in 1970 was still the longest-lived, most consistently excellent and backwards chteau to be found in all of Bordeaux. For many years after release, the 1970 Latour was one of the few examples of the vintage that was not particularly charming to drink, and it has taken a full 35 years for the wine to really blossom and begin showing its true quality. Today it is clear that the 1970 Latour is clearly one of the top three or four wines of the vintage, which has just now begun to emerge from its customary 30 years of hibernation and show itself in all its splendor. The stunning bouquet offers up sweet notes of black cherries, cassis, some grilled meat, cigar box, plenty of Pauillac soil, a bit of chipotle pepper, woodsmoke and cedar. On the palate the wine is full-bodied, complex and powerful, with a rock solid core of fruit, modest tannins, outstanding acidity, and tremendous length and grip on the endless, soil-driven and profound finish. Just a great bottle of Latour.

Producer Information

Chteau Latour is one of Bordeaux’s and the world’s most famous wine producers. It is situated in the southeast corner of the Pauillac commune on the border of Saint-Julien, in the Mdoc region. Rated as a First Growth in the 1855 Bordeaux Classification, it has become one of the most sought-after and expensive wine producers on the planet, and produces powerfully structured Cabernet Sauvignon-dominant wines capable of lasting many decades. The site has been occupied since 1331, with a fort and garrison to guard the estuary. Several smallholdings began to grow vines, and wine from the site gained recognition from Montaigne as early as the 16th Century. The original tower no longer exists; the famous tower featured on the label was designed as a pigeon roost and built around 1620. Latour’s development as a single property came with the beginning of a long unbroken period of connected family ownership, based around the de Sgur name, also associated with Mouton and Calon-Sgur. This began in 1670 and lasted 290 years although, after the French Revolution, Latour was divided up and not fully reunited until 1841. The chteau has been owned by French billionaire Franois Pinault since 1993 and falls under the umbrella of his holding company, Groupe Artemis. Other notable Artemis possessions include the likes of Burgundy’s Le Clos de Tart (in Morey-Saint-Denis) and Domaine d’Eugnie (in Vosne-Romane), Chteau-Grillet in Condrieu, and Napa Valley’s Araujo Estate. The Latour estate courted controversy in 2012 when it announced through long-time director Frdric Engerer that it would no longer take part in Bordeaux’s En Primeur pre-release sales campaign (an annual installment for nearly all the major names in the region). Since 2012, the estate has shown no signs of going back on this decision.