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. WILLIAM KELLEY
To me this is the greatest of all Bordeaux estates. Situated on the left bank in the commune of Pauillac this property has an uncanny ability to turn out the most enduringly great cabernet-based wines on the planet. While there are other first growths, Latour is the greatest. The stallion, rippling with power and precision and longevity. Like all the greatest cabernet on the planet it also holds a thread of iodine, seaweed aromtaic. It's that combination of umami and an unrivalled purity of dark fruits that makes it, in my mind, The Greatest of all Bordeaux
Why that is, well that's a question many have tried to answer over the years. I see in the above quote Helene Genin suggests it's the veins of blue clay that pierce through the gravels at just the rights points on the property that may be the difference. Mostly, likely though it's a number of factors, not least the maniacal attention to the smallest detail in the process. Something I've seen at all of the greatest producers I visit - Giacomo Conterno, DRC, and the like are all the same. MICHAEL MCNAMARA
