TN: Les Forts de Latour 2004

[Ray Barnes]

First of all I wish to acknowledge and thank my great friend Lesley Saito, a sommelier, with whom I had the pleasure of sharing this wine yesterday. She made observations over the 2 hour course of this wine, which she has given me permission to share on this forum. If there are any discrepancies between her thoughts and my transcriptions of them, the fault is entirely mine. I will try to add some personal impressions. Truth be told, I would have been over my head trying to approach this on my own.

This, the second wine of Medoc First Growth Chateau Latour, was acquired in early 2007, as an unclaimed wine future/en primeur offering, for $48.61; I was lucky to secure a half case. It has never been anywhere near as affordable since that vintage. I should say off the top that the cork was partially dried out, and it was a stroke of luck that the wine was even still alive, as we had a devil of a job with that. I was expecting this wine to be a somewhat less powerful version of the Grand Vin, and shall we say quintessially Pauillac. At no time over the 2 hours, to my complete surprise, did I get that impression. It is very different from the 2004 Ch. Pontet Canet for instance.

What was pretty consistent through the tasting were the waves of black and red currants, with bright acidity. The tannins came across initially as chalky and dusty, and with further aeration became more akin to fruit leather. There were also suggestions of drier French oak spices, along with hints of anise and clove, and red licorice. In spite of the greater proportion of merlot in the cuvee than what one might find in the Grand Vin, I do not believe either of us detected any trace of plumminess, mocha or chocolate. The wine was opaque, with the color ranging from deep purple to garnet, with some wateriness at the rim. It was very drinkable only a few minutes after decanting (thank to the darn cork), but really showed its stuff after about 45 minutes. There was also, atypical of Pauillac, little if any evidence of graphite. My impression was that the wine started out tasting and feeling closer to a Pessac Leognan; and ended up, to my initial great surprise, taking on some of the character of a red Hermitage. A bit of meatiness was also noted at this stage. If my memory is correct, Mr. Robert Parker has claimed that a 20 year old Hermitage can take on the characteristics of a Pauillac. Having recently opened a 1996 Crozes Hermitage from the extreme western edge of the Hermitage hill, I think I can see his point, but would qualify it to include the Medoc.

I found this wine to be as enjoyable, albeit in a different style, as the 2003 Carruades de Lafite, and perhaps slightly preferable to the 2005 Bahans Haut Brion. It is a very fine wine and the best claret I have tasted in over a year. It still has at least 10 years of life. Our overall rating is excellent-plus, a little short of classic. It was quite an experience.