Château Latour 2009 Pauillac 1er Grand Cru Classé

Jane Anson
100/100 punten
Unmistakable Latour in an exceptional vintage, so you should expect a muscular, sculpted and confident wine that is bursting with Pauillac character, showcasing the brilliance of this clay-gravel location overlooking the Gironde Estuary. Still just emerging from its primary stage but just about ready to drink if you give it long enough in a carafe - although it will be even better with another decade. Think blackberry, bilberry, cassis, charcoal, slate, sage, incense, cigar box, grilled cumin and a ton of black chocolate shavings. 100% new oak for ageing, Penelope Godefroy vineyard director, Frederic Engerer director.

James Suckling
100/100 punten
Dark and chocolatey with a lot of richness, but also a cool herbal freshness this is a very impressive Medoc wine that's already delicious to drink. Very long, surprisingly supple finish for this château. A perfect wine. Drink or hold.

Lisa Perrotti-Brown, Robert Parker’s Wine Advocate
100/100 punten
Deep garnet colored, the 2009 Latour is unashamedly youthful with bold blackcurrants, black cherries and warm plums notes plus nuances of cedar chest, aniseed, beef drippings, truffles and tapenade with a waft of tilled black soil. Full, concentrated and powerful in the mouth, it has a rock-solid frame of super ripe, grainy tannins and fantastic freshness, finishing very long and wonderfully minerally. Just a baby—this needs time!

Peter Moser, Falstaff
100/100 punten
Deep dark ruby garnet colour with purple reflections, subtle brightening on the rim. Delicate floral background of small black berries, a hint of precious wood, delicate nougat and caramel, ripe blackberry and cassis confit, tobacco touch, very multi-faceted bouquet. Complex, powerful, very juicy, fully ripe heart cherries, great fruit sweetness, ripe, supporting tannins, already shows an enormous length, appears cool and fresh on the finish, lingers for minutes, mineral nuances on the finish, has an enormous aromatic intensity. Already accessible, but better to wait.

Jeb Dunnuck
100/100 punten
An incredible wine in every way, the 2009 Château Latour displays the ripe, sexy style of the vintage while still offering classic Latour power, density, and regalness. Currants, spicy wood, smoked tobacco, graphite, and ample minerality all define the bouquet, and it's full-bodied, with incredible density, perfectly integrated, ripe, polished tannins, and a finish that leaves no doubt about the insane quality of this wine. Based on 91.3% Cabernet Sauvignon and 8.7% Merlot, and checking in at 13.7% alcohol, it's drinking brilliantly today given its incredible texture and balance, and I suspect it has another 50-60 years of prime drinking. This is as good a Bordeaux as I've had and is as good as wine gets.

Jeff Leve, The wine Cellar Insider
100/100 punten
You can sense the ripeness of the sunny vintage in the nose, with its joyous red berries, tobacco leaf, oyster shell, vanilla smoke, mint, cigar box and dark chocolate. Sensuous on the palate, with silky tannins and sweet, ripe, pure fruits, the wine is all power, grace, symmetry and elegance. This is a sexy vintage of Latour that you can really feel, as the wine rests and expands on your palate. Yes this is young. So if you are going to open a bottle, give it 2-3 hours of air, or wait another decade. This is one of the memorable tasting experiences that was impossible to spit.

The Wine Indendent
100/100 punten
Deep garnet colored, the 2009 Latour is unashamedly youthful with bold blackcurrants, black cherries and warm plums notes plus nuances of cedar chest, aniseed, beef drippings, truffles and tapenade with a waft of tilled black soil. Full, concentrated and powerful in the mouth, it has a rock-solid frame of super ripe, grainy tannins and fantastic freshness, finishing very long and wonderfully minerally. Just a baby—this needs time!

Jancis Robinson
19/20 punten
Tasted blind. Lustrous deep crimson. Sweet yet refined. Recalls juggling or tightrope-walking with its mixture of ripeness and freshness. Dry finish on wonderfully precise sweet fruit. Still very youthful. Clean. Highest average score ever! 19.24 because of five 20/20s.

Neal Martin, Vinous
99/100 punten
The 2009 Latour is endowed with a simply magnificent nose with intense blackberry and cassis fruit laced with minerals and graphite, extremely focused to the point of overwhelming the sense. Wow. The palate is medium-bodied with filigree tannin, multilayered black fruit infused with crushed stone and a hint of white pepper, though it clams up towards the finish as if to say, not yet. Outstanding. This is Latour firing on all cylinders. Tasted blind at Farr Vintners’ 2009 Bordeaux tasting.

Decanter
99/100 punten
The hot, dry summer of 2009 produced a somewhat burly wine that seems riper and almost sweeter than the 2010 vintage, although it lacks a bit of the tension and freshness of the 2010. The result is fleshy and dense, with an almost fearsome depth of flavour. The texture suggests that this wine has the substance to age for decades, while the approachable character means that it should open up before the 2010 vintage. In 2009, the picking lasted from 23rd September through to 10th October, and the final blend was over 90% Cabernet Sauvignon with the balance being Merlot; neither Cabernet Franc nor Petit Verdot made an appearance in the grand vin.

The Wine Enthusiast
99/100 punten
A big, powerful wine that sums up the richness of the vintage. It is densely fruity, spicy with an enormous black plum and berry fruit character to go with the acidity. It's concentrated while still showing such wonderfully pure fruit. The aging potential is immense.