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Latour 2009

RegionBordeaux
Subregion France > Bordeaux > Left Bank > Pauillac
ColourRed
TypeStill
Grape VarietyCabernet Sauvignon

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Label

Tasting Notes

Proprietor Francois Pinault and his director, Frederic Engerer, have pulled out all the stops to produce one of the most monumental Latour's ever made. a Blend of 91.3% Cabernet Sauvignon and 8.7% Merlot with just under 14% natural alcohol, the 2009 Latour is basically a clone of the super 2003, only more structured and potentially more massive and long lived. An elixir of momentous proportions, it boasts a dense purple color as well as an extraordinarily flamboyant bouquet of black fruits, graphite, crushed rocks, subtle oak and notion of wet steel. It hits the palate with a thundering concoction of thick, juicy blue and black fruits, lead pencil shavings and a chalky minerality. Full-bodied, but very fresh with a finish that lasts over a minute, this is one of the most remarkable young wines I have ever tasted. Will it last one-hundred years? No doubt about it. Can it be drunk in a decade? For sure.

100
Robert Parker, Wine Advocate, March 2012

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. 2024 - 2070

99
Neal Martin, vinous.com, March 2019

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! Drink 2022-2080.

100
Lisa Perrotti-Brown MW, Wine Advocate, March 2019

A breathtaking combination of dried flowers and minerals, with dark fruits such as currants and blackberries. Full-bodied, with fabulous fruit concentration, yet its compacted. Velvety tannins. So much fruit and beauty. It's the quality of the tannins that are magic. It is the famous 1959 all over again. Amazing. Try in 2022.

100
James Suckling, JamesSuckling.com, February 2012

Latour 2009 is one of the great young wines I have had the luck to follow closely from barrel to bottle. It is - in my view - the wine of the vintage in 2009. Still an opaque ruby-purple in the glass, it brings vintage and terroir together beautifully. Powerful cassis fruit drives the nose which is still primary, showing flecks of sophisticated wood spice, cedar and liquorice. Despite the solar nature of the vintage, there remains a stony, savoury restraint. The palate is broad shouldered yet highly refined, the bold structure meticulously cloaked by the sheen of ripe black fruit. Expansive blackcurrant, briary and dark cherry tones are bolstered by spices that add to the complexity at this young stage. Powerful yet always controlled, the wine almost coils through the mid-palate, the fruit winding around the structure; it must be one of the only 2009s that is yet to reach its prime. Focusing on the finish with tannins persistent yet slick against the fruit, this sublime Latour will drink well for many, many decades. Brilliant.

100
Thomas Parker MW, Farr Vintners, April 2023

Classic Pauillac power and finesse, packed with brambled fruits, hedgerow earthiness, exuberant while being controlled and carefully delivered. This has shoulders and backbone, and is impossible to ignore. Still in its primary phase so zero need to rush, but you are going to get more joy from this 2009 than you will with the 2010 vintage for at least the next five years. Penelope Godefroy vineyard director at the time, 100% new oak. Although they had not begun conversion at this point, things were moving in that direction - horses had been reintroduced within the vineyard as of 2008, and all chemical weedkillers had been stopped in the 1990s. The first biodynamic experiments took place in this vintage, but just over 3ha of vines. Still being sold En Primeur at the time, so relatively widely available.

100
Jane Anson, JaneAnson.com, September 2021

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. 14%
Drink 2022-2050

19
Jancis Robinson MW, JancisRobinson.com, March 2019

Many have called this the best vineyard in the world and the dynamic Director of Chateau Latour, Frédéric Engerer, is determined to make the greatest wine possible. He has the confidence of owner, François Pinault, to do all that it takes to achieve this aim. Production levels have been slashed in recent vintages with only the best parcels of vines now producing grapes for the Grand Vin. Latour has always had a fantastic terroir and now has a wine-making team working with state-of-the-art modern equipment under inspired leadership. In the last 10 years Latour has made the wine of the vintage more times than any other Chateau. The 2009 is made from a whopping 91.3% Cabernet Sauvignon with the rest Merlot. The grand vin represents only 38.3% of the total production with less than 10,000 cases produced. Big and black of course, with a classic nose of cassis fruit and some spicy oak. On the palate there is dense black fruit - cassis and cherry - but there is also very much a sense of elegance and class, not just raw power. Long, supremely classy and it builds in the mouth. Significant tannins at the finish. Serous and stunning. Monsieur Engerer says its like the 2000 but with more power, like the 2005 but thicker, as if it had a dash of 2003 in it. Really impressive. Wow!

100
Farr Vintners, April 2010

The perfume of woodland violets and wood smoke leaps out of the glass. There are layers of flavour first blackcurrant, then black cherty and sloe refreshed by the underlying bilberry. The tannins are structured but in no way aggressive allowing the fleshy fruit to show itself to advantage. Drink 2022-2050.

96/100
Derek Smedley MW, April 2010

A whisper away from perfection, this is one of the most profound Latours I have ever tasted. It's thick and dense with lashings of new oak. Rich, concentrated and powerful, with the high percentage of Cabernet providing backbone and structure, this is a wine for the long haul with incredible fruit concentration, but smooth tannins. 30+ years.

99
Tim Atkin MW, April 2010

(91.3% Cabernet Sauvignon, 8.7% Merlot) Black red, huge concentration of black fruits and great purity, wonderfully fragrant nose with wild violets and lifted freshness, great length and perfect texture, totally Latour and all the fruit and vineyard will come out over the years. Drink 2018-45.

19.5
Steven Spurrier, Decanter.com, April 2010

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. (Horizontal Tasting, London, 2019)

100
Stuart Pigott, JamesSuckling.com, March 2019
Read more tasting notes...

The 2009 Latour has off the charts concentration in addition to the highest level of tannin ever measured at the estate. The final blend was somewhat unusual in that it consists of 91.3% Cabernet Sauvignon and 8.7% Merlot, and clocked in at 13.7% alcohol (even higher than the 2003). Possibly a 100-year wine, it boasts an inky/black/purple color as well as an extraordinary perfume of super-intense blue and black fruits, graphite, and a liqueur of rocks-like minerality. Enormously full-bodied yet at the same time incredibly fresh, vibrant, and precise, it coats the mouth, and builds incrementally to skyscraper-like texture, and a whopping finish that lasts over a minute. This remarkable wine reveals a certain accessibility already, yet one senses that it will be even richer, more nuanced, and fuller by the time it is bottled in mid-2011. A monumental wine from a monumental vintage in the Medoc, this is our children's children's children's elixir. (Tasted once.)

There is no doubting that Director Frederic Engerer and owner Francois Pinault are thrilled with what they have accomplished at Latour. These three wines are hugely different in price, but all are extraordinary.

98/100
Robert Parker, Wine Advocate (188), April 2010

Tasted at the château. Frédéric Engerer told me that the 2009 had a comparatively long fermentation of up to two weeks. It delivers a show-stopping bouquet: classic seductive Pauillac with ebullient black fruits infused with graphite, crushed stone, pencil box, cedar and a touch of mint. With aeration there is a suggestion of something more exotic...wild honey or apricot blossom. The palate is full-bodied with supple but powerful tannins, beautifully integrated oak, perhaps a little edgier thanks to its redoubtable tannic finish. Majestic. Tasted November 2011.

97
Neal Martin, RobertParker.com, November 2011

Tasted at the château. Very deep purple colour. The nose is very well defined with scents of small blackberry, boysenberry, cold granite and just a hint of pencil lead. Great clarity and expression here. This is a majestic Latour, utterly pure, wonderful minerality showing through, very fine tannins and incredible poise. Blackberry, touches of briary, coiled up energy towards the finish, utterly focused with that tannins leaving an off-dry finish with bewitching persistency. There is paradoxically weight and weightlessness...sorry to be so cryptic, but that is how it is! A monumental Latour that constitutes one of the greatest wines of the vintage. Tasted March 2010.

98/100
Neal Martin, RobertParker.com, April 2010

This is incredibly floral on the nose, with violet and lilac as well as dark and ripe raspberry and blueberry. Full-bodied, with a dense and incredibly rich palate yet held back and in reserve. Such precision and beauty. It lasts for minutes on the palate. This reminds me of the 1990, but better made and better raised. It is really the style of Latour, where the tannins grab you at the end. This will most likely be a perfect wine.

97/100
James Suckling, WineSpectator.com, March 2010

Very deep and glowing crimson. Very rich and sweet ink on the nose. Wonderfully gorgeous and lush on the front palate. Then lots of heat and richness. Amazing power of fruit on the mid palate gives way to extremely pronounced tannins. Transparent, mellifluous, spicy. Violets, says Engerer. Dry Taylors port? Latour backbone. Glossy ripe fruit. Candied violets. Maybe in 03 we went overboard. Enormous energy. Very impressive. Date tasted 31st March 2010. Drink 2022-2045.

19
Jancis Robinson MW, JancisRobinson.com, April 2010
Please note that these tasting notes/scores are not intended to be exhaustive and in some cases they may not be the most recently published figures. However, we always do our best to add latest scores and reviews when these come to our attention. We advise customers who wish to purchase wines based simply on critical reviews to carry out further research into the latest reports.