Château Latour 2005

Jeannie Cho Lee

The Wine Front

Wine & Spirits Magazine

Jeff Leve, The Wine Cellar Insider

The Wine Independent

VertdeVin

The nose is fruity, fresh and offers a beautiful finesse and a beautiful elegance. It reveals notes of ripe blackberry, smoke, fresh strawberry, cassis and fleshy raspberry combined with fine / very discreet hints of mushroom, tonka bean, slight notes of Sichuan pepper as well as a hint of racy minerality (almost saline!). The palate is fruity, nicely fresh, mineral, well-balanced, powerful and offers a beautiful roundness, a very beautiful juiciness, a slight fleshiness, a beautiful finesse (full of balance with the power) and a good structure. Beautiful mouth ! On the palate this wine expresses notes of ripe juicy blackberry, cassis, ripe strawberry and ripe raspberry combined with fine notes of minerality, berries, chocolate as well as a discreet hint of caramelization, a subtle hint of vanilla and a very discreet hint of coffee (in the background). Tannins are fine and very elegant. Good length.

Falstaff

Wine Enthusiast

A great wine, the summation of a great vintage in Bordeaux. The core of richness, the dense, bone-dry tannins, the black currants, red berries and black plum skins are the elements, but it's the way they have been integrated that makes this such an impressive wine. There is great elegance as well, a fabulous counterpoint to such power. Cellar for at least 15 years, but this will keep forever.

Robert Parker Wine Advocate

2005 was a very dry, warm and sunny vintage, causing vine stress in some areas of Bordeaux. Harvested from September 26 to October 6, the tannin/IPT levels were very high this year. The 2005 Latour is blended of 87% Cabernet Sauvignon, with the rest Merlot and Petit Verdot. It is the biggest surprise of this tasting—until now, the wine was relatively closed and broody, but today the wine is just starting to reveal its personality—and what a stunner! Medium to deep garnet-purple colored, it opens with provocative floral scents of roses and violets over a core of fresh blackcurrants, chocolate-covered cherries and black raspberries with hints of fertile loam, unsmoked cigars and black tea. Medium to full-bodied, firm, grainy and packed with muscular fruit, it has an epically long, savory finish sparked by floral notes. 12,000 cases were made.