Pre-Order ETA  Sep/Oct 2025
OWC 1 / OWC 3 / OWC 6 - upon request

The 2016 Château Latour is an exceptional wine, earning high praise for its complexity, power, and aging potential. With a blend dominated by 92.9% Cabernet Sauvignon, this wine presents a mesmerizing bouquet of blackberries, cassis, and subtle notes of cigar ash, tobacco, and pencil shavings. The palate is concentrated and muscular, framed by firm, structured tannins that promise longevity. Though it may seem a bit austere in its youth, the wine is poised for greatness as it continues to evolve over decades. Its balance of intensity and elegance makes it a benchmark wine, one to be savored in the years to come.

Jamessuckling.com | JS 100
Published: Jan 13, 2025

I am dreaming as I smell this wine, perfectly ripe cabernet sauvignon with currants, tobacco and fresh mint. Orange blossoms too. This amazing nose is so complex. Medium- to full-bodied, this has has perfectly integrated tannins that you don't feel but know are there, elevating the wine to another level. It's very drinkable because of its stellar balance, yet the tannic tension gives it energy and seamless texture. A benchmark Latour that reminds me of the 1982 in many ways. Drink or hold.

Decanter | D 100
Published: Feb 2, 2025

A monumental wine from Latour. This isn't yet ready to drink but offers an impactful and promising palate full of muscle, tension and length. A complex nose filled with pencil lead, crayon, cola, mint, dried herbs, violets, and tobacco, layered with cocoa powder and espresso nuances. On the palate, it is both generous and controlled, suave and slick, with an effortless texture that fills the mouth with bright red fruits and cool, stony elements. The wine expands beautifully, with a powdery, fleshy grip leading to a long, mineral-driven finish marked by wet stones, graphite, and cola. Still compact and somewhat caged, the tannins remain firm and structured, almost austere in their tension. It carries a sense of power and poise, but still with supreme charm. 3.7pH.
Closure: Cork
Alcohol: 13.50%
Grapes: 92.9% Cabernet Sauvignon 7.1% Merlot

The Wine Advocate | RP 96+?
Published: Feb 13, 2025
Drink: 2026-2066

On paper, the combination of this estate and this vintage should be a match made in heaven, and the 2016 Latour has already received resounding acclaim among the wine trade and commentariat. The result in the glass, however, didn't quite meet my lofty expectations, offering up aromas of cassis and blackberries mingled with cigar ash, pencil shavings and saddle leather, followed by a medium to full-bodied, rich and layered palate that's undeniably concentrated and muscular but also somewhat austerely structured, with firm tannins that assert themselves on the somewhat carnal finish. For sheer intensity of flavor, the 2016 is certainly impressive, but it appears to be missing the purity and precision that one might expect for a first growth in a great 21st-century vintage. Perhaps the wine's somewhat wild, rustic characteristics will integrate more seamlessly as more bottle bouquet develops, but my immediate reaction to tasting it was to purchase two more cases of the superb 2016 Forts de Latour.

Château Latour left the en primeur system in 2012, so the estate's latest releases are the 2020 Pauillac, 2019 Forts de Latour and 2016 Grand Vin de Latour, which I tasted at the estate with Technical Director Hélène Génin. Certified organic since 2018, most of Latour's historic "Enclos" is being farmed biodynamically these days, and its entirety is now cultivated by horse to minimize soil compaction and preserve intact as many old vines as possible. But the objective, above all, rather than subscribing to any particular theoretical approach, is to treat the vineyard holistically, as a system, within and with nature rather than against it. Winemaking is traditional, with macerations in stainless steel followed by maturation in barrel with rackings every three months and one fining with egg whites. Great attention is paid to the choice of barrels: each lot is tasted and its style defined before it's barreled down in cooperage adapted to that style. But if these methods realize the potential of this great site, what makes Latour's site so great? After all, this isn't the only vineyard to occupy the quaternary gravel terrace that makes its appearance along the banks of the Gironde. When I posed this question, Génin's response was to point to Latour's lenses of blue clay interfingered with and underlying those gravels. It's these pockets of clay in just the right places, Génin contends, that contain the secret to the wine's elegantly muscular power and immense longevity.

Jancisrobinson.com | JR 18
Published: Feb 6, 2020
Drink: 2027-2045

Tasted blind. Heady and sweet with very ripe black-fruit flavours on the nose. Very rich and sweet with massive appeal but maybe just one notch too ripe?? New style! 

Chateau-latour.com

Château Latour’s Grand Vin is made exclusively from “vieilles vignes”, an average of 60 years-old, in the Enclos. Gravettes, Sarmentier, Pièce de Château... these are the names of some of the finest plots that express the character of the terroir and forge the wine’s identity every year.

The heart of the Enclos is the only terroir that, every year, can produce the depth, elegance and concentration that we expect of the Grand Vin. It is here that the Cabernet Sauvignon (accounting for more than 90% of the blend) can achieve optimal expression in terms of colour, richness and freshness. These wines need time - often a decade- before they begin to be ready for drinking.

In great vintages, the power and energy of Château Latour's wines enables them to continue to develop for several decades with ease. The bouquet and impressions on tasting gradually evolve, becoming increasingly complex, ultimately reaching a peak, after which the tannins soften and then the wine slowly declines. Beyond the pleasure of drinking them, these wines can produce powerful feelings and unforgettable moments.

Château Latour is also known for having the ability to produce fine wines even in difficult years.

2016 Wine style - A backbone of focused, taut tannins and a long-lasting, bright finish.