Les Forts de Latour 2017 Pauillac

James Suckling
95/100 punten
Juicy and spicy with fresh tobacco, redcurrants and crushed stone character. Medium to full body. Medium velvety tannins and a delicious finish. Will age beautifully as well. Better after 2026.

Jeff Leve (The Wine Cellar Insider)
93/100 punten
Forest floor, cedar, tobacco leaf and fresh, dark red berries open the wine. Ripe, sweet tannins, juicy, fresh cassis and plenty of fruit and cigar wrapper in the zesty finish to satisfy a discerning consumer. This wine has a lot of lift but the tannins are soft enough, that you should be able to enjoy this in a few years, and it's going to age well too. The wine was produced from blending 65.2% Cabernet Sauvignon, 33% Merlot, 1% Petit Verdot and .08% Cabernet Franc . 93 Points

Wine Enthusiast
94/100 punten
This bold, structured wine is packed with blackberry fruits and ripe tannins. Freshness and structure from the Cabernet Sauvignon are very present, giving a crisp edge to the solid backbone. This is a wine for aging. Don't drink before 2023. Roger Voss

Robert Parker’s Wine Advocate
93/100 punten
Aromas of minty berries, cassis and plums mingle with hints of pencil shavings to introduce the 2017 Les Forts de Latour, a medium to full-bodied, suave and elegant wine with attractive depth and purity of fruit, supple tannins and a bright, precise profile. This is a classy Les Forts that will offer a broad drinking window. As readers will remember, it mostly derives from dedicated parcels located further inland from Latour's famous "Enclos," next to Château Haut-Batailley.

In 2017, some areas inland and to the north of Pauillac were frosted (plots that go into Les Forts and Pauillac), but its enviable proximity to the estuary meant the L’Enclos was completely spared. “The viticulture, as well as winemaking, have dramatically changed the styles of wine a vintage like 2017 can produce,” Frederic Engerer commented during my Primeurs visit, adding a reference to the vintage’s phenomenal ability to produce wines that are, “approachable now and have the ability to age.” Winemaker Helene Genin added that 2017 was the last year for Cabernet Franc, which is a minor component in Les Forts de Latour this year. It was pulled out at the end of 2017.

Some areas inland and to the north of Pauillac were frosted (plots that go into Les Forts and Pauillac), but the Enclos’ enviable proximity to the estuary meant it was completely spared. “The viticulture as well as winemaking have dramatically changed the styles of wine a vintage like 2017 can produce,” Frédéric Engerer commented during my en primeur visit, adding a reference to the vintage’s phenomenal ability to produce wines that are, “approachable now and have the ability to age.” Engerer speaks from a somewhat unique position, now being in control of one of Napa Valley’s top estates, what I fondly refer to in my own mind as the region where you can have your cake and eat it too when it comes to drinking windows.

Under CEO Frédéric Engerer and technical director Hélène Génin, unremitting perfectionism and attention to detail are the order of the day at Château Latour, so it's no surprise that this great estate has delivered some of the finest wines of the vintage in Bordeaux. 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 precise but 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, Hélène 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.