Latour Martillac 2009

The best ever wine from this estate (even better than their sensational 2005), this full-bodied wine offers notes of blueberry, black currant, asphalt and burning charcoal embers in a deep, layered and multi-dimensional style. It is impressively pure and well-built, with far greater concentration and length than I ever remember this wine having in the past. Forget it for 5 years and drink it over the following three decades.

The best wine I have ever tasted from this estate, the oak seems to have been subdued, or maybe it is just that the fruit level is kicked up so high that the oak is not noticeable. That is certainly a characteristic of 2009. Dense purple in color, with hints of graphite, cigar box, creme de cassis, and subtle barbecue smoke, the wine is loaded, rich, opulent, medium to full-bodied, and a beautiful model of a wine that makes a few concessions to the modern style of Bordeaux but retains its Graves personality totally intact. It should drink well for 20-25 years. (Tasted two times.)

Drinking beautifully, the 2009 Château Latour-Martillac boasts a dense purple/plum color as well as textbook Graves notes of smoky blackcurrants, tobacco, scorched earth, chocolate, and assorted meaty, spicy nuances. With medium to full-bodied richness, a fleshy, opulent texture, and a great finish, this is just now in its early stages of maturity and has another 20 years or more of prime drinking. It's beautifully done and I'd be happy with bottles in the cellar. Drink 2020-2042.