2014 Chateau Latour 1er Cru, Pauillac

This classically balanced, youthfully structured young wine looks set to enjoy prodigious longevity. It’s reminiscent of a modern-day version of a cooler vintage such as 1996, though of course these days maturity is more complete and selection even more rigorous than was the case two decades ago.

97+ points William Kelley robertparker.com 2022 Drink 2028-2065

This has aromas of black fruit, olives, wet earth, dried lavender, cloves and bark. Bitter chocolate and walnuts, too. It’s medium-to full-bodied with firm, tight-grained tannins. Structured, with great freshness and length. Cedar notes on the lighter mid-palate. Still a little tight and chewy. Try from 2024.

97 points jamessuckling.com 2022

The depth, power and just sheer confidence of Latour shines through. This is an extremely classic 2014 - everything in focus, with clarity, grip and poise, sculpted blackcurrant and blackberry fruits, touches of raspberry leaf and crushed rocks. Cabernet Sauvignon dominant, still strict and muscular in its tannins, with heft and width through the palate. As it opens graphite, violet and campfire smoke curls through the centre of the wine, along with slow and steady waves of saffron and sage spice. Easily one of the wines of the vintage, and one to take your time with, allowing the slow progression of flavours and textures to unroll at their own pace. It will benefit from another few years in bottle before really getting underway, and has decades ahead. Eric Boissenot consultant, Hélène Génin technical director. Harvest September 18 September to October 15.

96 points Jane Anson janeanson.com

Comprising 90% Cabernet Sauvignon, 9.25% Merlot, 0.5% Cabernet Franc, 0.25% Petit Verdot

The 2014 Latour is one of the very finest wines of a vintage that favored the northern Médoc. Mingling aromas of wild berries and cassis with hints of cigar wrapper, loamy soil, black truffles and classy new oak, it’s full-bodied, rich and

concentrated, its broad attack segueing into a deep, tightly wound mid-palate that’s framed by powdery, chalky tannins and bright acids, concluding with a long, mouth-watering finish.

Château Latour 1er Cru Classé sits at the very top of Pauillac and Bordeaux royalty, one of the five First Growths crowned in the 1855 Classification and arguably the most unshakeable of them all. Its vineyards lie right on the Gironde estuary where deep gravel over clay gives Latour its signature combination of power and precision. That estuary acts like a thermal blanket, protecting the vines from frost and stretching the growing season, which is one reason Latour delivers such astonishing consistency even in difficult years. Cabernet Sauvignon dominates the blend, usually around ninety percent, backed by Merlot with tiny touches of Cabernet Franc and Petit Verdot to add lift and spice.

The soul of Latour is the Enclos, a walled vineyard that has been producing wine on this site since the fourteenth century. It is one of the great terroirs of the Médoc, a patchwork of ancient gravel mounds laid down by the river, giving perfect drainage and forcing the vines to dig deep. Those old vines, some more than sixty years of age, produce berries of remarkable concentration and aromatic complexity. The wine is fermented in state of the art vats and aged in one hundred percent new French oak, which is not about flashy wood but about framing that dense fruit and giving it decades of graceful evolution.

Historically Latour has always been the powerhouse First Growth. While Lafite leans toward perfume and Margaux toward silk, Latour is about architecture and authority. In the nineteenth century it was already trading at the very top of Bordeaux prices, and in modern times it took another bold step by leaving the traditional en primeur system, releasing wines only when they feel ready to drink. That decision perfectly suits Latour’s character because these wines are built for the long haul. Even in youth they show layers of cassis, graphite, cedar, cigar box and crushed stone, then with age they unfold into truffle, leather, tobacco and that unmistakable Pauillac earth.

In the glass a young Latour is deep and almost opaque, a black velvet of Cabernet fruit. The aroma is all blackcurrant, plum skin, pencil shavings and warm gravel after rain. On the palate it is dense yet incredibly precise, the tannins fine grained but monumental, carrying waves of dark fruit, savoury herbs and mineral drive that seem to go on forever. With time in the cellar it becomes hauntingly complex and almost Burgundian in its detail, despite its sheer scale.

This is a wine for serious food and serious moments. Think roast rib of beef, slow cooked lamb shoulder with rosemary, venison with blackberries or a beautifully marbled wagyu steak. Give it air, give it time, and it rewards you with one of the most profound red wine experiences on the planet. For collectors and lovers of great Bordeaux, Château Latour is not just a First Growth, it is a benchmark for what Cabernet on great terroir can achieve.