Château Latour, 2016
Château Latour, 2016
- Red Still
- Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot
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Delivery in Autumn, 2025
This wine is available to buy online together with Château Latour, Les Forts De Latour, 2019
Château Latour is situated in the heart of the Médoc wine region, about 50 km north-west of Bordeaux, where the legend of Bordeaux vineyards began. The Château’s prime terroir, l’Enclos, overlooks the Gironde Estuary which over the centuries, has given the vineyard its geological complexity and, on a daily basis, ensures a mild climate.
In the years since 1993, under the leadership of the Pinault family, the estate’s owner, significant changes have been made with a view to maintaining Château Latour’s pursuit of excellence in the wines that it produces.
The 2016 vintage is backed up by no less than nine 100 point scores* from leading critics, with even hard-to-impress Neal Martin stating that the 2016 can be “uttered in the same breath as the 1900, 1924, 1959, 1961, 1982 and 2010.”
100 points “This is everything you could really wish for in a Latour.” Neal Martin, Vinous
100 points “everything is in place for decades of pleasure” Jane Anson
100 points “Regal and nuanced, with tons of energy, the 2016 is immediately captivating…Unforgettable” Antonio Galloni, Vinous
100 points “A monumental wine from Latour.” Georgina Hindle
100 points “A benchmark Latour that reminds me of the 1982 in many ways.” James Suckling
100 points “Retasting the 2016 Château Latour next to both the 2010 and 2022 had me feeling like a kid in a candy store.” Jeb Dunnuck
100 points “The…palate is like an atomic bomb waiting to go off” Lisa Perrotti-Brown
100 points “Elegant, powerful and refined, this will age for 4-5-6 decades or longer” Jeff Leve
100 points ”I don’t scatter 100 point scores like confetti, but this is worth every one of them and is the wine of the vintage” Tim Atkin
*In interest of balance, William Kelley offers a lone dissenting voice with 96+ points
What the critics say:
"The 2016 Latour is magnificent. Regal and nuanced, with tons of energy, the 2016 is immediately captivating. The bouquet announces an important wine, a feeling that builds through the wine's mid-palate. There's a real feeling of exuberance in 2016, and yet the wine remains quite classic in its structural composition. Beams of supporting tannin extend the effortless, beautifully persistent finish. Unforgettable."
"The 2016 Latour is a vintage that I have tasted a couple of times post-bottling. On one occasion, it warranted a perfect score, but that was then moot since this vintage had not been released. Now that it is due to hit the shelves this coming March, does the wine still merit that three-digit accolade? Without question, yes. Deep lucid deep purple in color, it seems to shimmer in the glass. The bouquet plays with you, a bit of a femme fatale, distant for the first few minutes. Then, it magically coalesces and gains incredible intensity with blackberry, pencil lead, background hints of oyster shell and notes of Japanese wakame. The aromatics announce exactly which château you are doing business with. The palate is medium-bodied with filigreed tannins, again, as I found before, blessed with beguiling symmetry and ineffable poise. Residing firmly on the black side of the fruit spectrum, there is underlying mineralité. Veins of cassis run through the persistent finish. This is everything you could really wish for in a Latour. The 2016 can be uttered in the same breath as the 1900, 1924, 1959, 1961, 1982 and 2010. Magnificent."
"Impressively precise and muscular, no question that this needs longer in the bottle before really being ready to drink, but everything is in place for decades of pleasure. Smart timing of this release, a vintage that underlines without question just why Latour is so revered, and why there is a clear logic to holding it back at the estate for almost a decade, allowing the first part of its ageing cycle to take place under fully controlled conditions. Very much a classic Pauillac, with confidence and character, waves of mint leaf, coffee bean, cola, crushed rocks, crayon and liqourice root, opening up to show fragrant nuances of rose petals and peony. 100% new oak for ageing. Hélène Genin technical director, Eric Boissenot consultant, and at this point Latour was farming entirely organically and biodynamically, with organic certification coming in 2018."
