2002 Latour
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Tasting notes
The 2002 Latour is more backward on the nose, quite floral with rose petal scents infusing the red and black fruit, a marine element that emerges with time in the glass. I could not find any of the Christmas cake aromas that I observed on previous bottles. The palate is medium-bodied with firm tannins, grippy in the mouth with a dense and sapid finish. Given the vintage, this is a magnificent wine, probably the finest on the Left Bank, though clearly from large formats such as this it requires more time. Tasted blind from double magnum at 20-year retrospective at the château.
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The 2002 Latour is a wine that has impressed ever since I first tasted it from barrel and subsequently both in sighted and blind conditions. It offers disarming black fruit laced with tobacco and graphite on the nose, this bottle showing less of the "Christmas cake" that I remarked in previous bottles. Firm in structure, the 2000 has more charm and vivacity than many of its Left Bank peers this vintage, plenty of cedar and pencil lead notes with a grippy yet detailed finish. You could actually begin broaching this now but it will offer another two decades of drinking pleasure. Tasted blind at a private dinner in Bordeaux.
One of the most pleasant surprises in this tasting, the 2002 Latour is just beginning to show the full breadth of its aromatic complexity, but it is also has more than enough depth to drink well for several decades. Tar, graphite, incense and smoke open up in the glass in a Latour that leans towards the more delicate, feminine side of things. Silky tannins add polish and creaminess through to the finish. The 2002 is surprisingly delicious today for a young Latour, but it also has the pedigree and density to age nicely for decades.
About the producer
One of Bordeaux’s five First Growths, as classified in 1855, Ch. Latour is among the most famous addresses in Pauillac and the world. The estate is renowned for its long-ageing, powerful and structured wines.