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Goedhuis, March 2023, Score: 98
An enticing combination aromatically of dark blueberry and cassis scent given an additional layer and edge with enticing deep husky characters of iron filing and autumnal woodlands. The fruit in the palate is beautifully polished, with a feeling of harmonious juiciness. However, the overriding sensation is a wine of great boldness and tension, it possesses true Pauillac intensity and restrained power. There is so much substance to this wine, layered and spiced, with the sweetness of fruit that is such a strong character of this hugely rewarding vintage. Fabulously long with tremendous composure: certainly a wine for the long term.
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Neal Martin, March 2023, Score: 96
The 2015 Latour was bottled in July 2017 and contains 13.04% alcohol. It is blessed with a refined and focused bouquet: perfumed blackberry and raspberry scents, iodine, pine and light pencil shaving aromas. It has dispensed with the subtle fig-like/exotic notes noticeable three years ago, arguably a little more conservative today. The palate is medium-bodied, with fine-grain tannins; harmonious and poised, clean and precise, understated with an irresistible silky texture. The 2015 does not possess a peacock’s tail like a top-tier Latour. No, it prefers to remain cool, calm and collected for now. This sublime First Growth will cruise for many years.
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Neal Martin, July 2019, Score: 96
The 2015 Latour has a sensual, richer and more exotic bouquet than its peers, featuring plush red fruit intermingling with raisin and fig, although there is no sur-maturité here; the wine is just crafted in a more opulent style for this First Growth. The palate is medium-bodied with supple tannin and a fine bead of acidity. This feels very cohesive and focused, and more saline than its peers. Veins of brown spice and leather surface toward the complex, engaging finish. I would have liked a little more length, but otherwise this is very fine. Tasted blind at the Southwold 2015 Bordeaux tasting.
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Neal Martin, April 2016, Score: 95-97
The 2015 Latour is a blend of 97.1% Cabernet Sauvignon, 2.6% Merlot (just one historical vat courtesy of old vines interpolated with the Cabernet) and 0.3% Petit Verdot. It represents 30% of the production and is matured in 100% new oak as usual. It has a very complex, nuanced bouquet that needs 10-15 minutes to open. It blossoms with blackberry, briary, hoisin and slate notes, but it remains very focused and linear. The palate is extremely well balanced with fine grain tannin. For certain, this is an intense Latour with a strong and tangible undertow of mineralité. This is classic Latour: aristocratic, aloof at first, perhaps enigmatic compared to other vintages. I wonder if this has something hiding up its sleeve for after bottling? Drink: 2025 - 2065
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Antonio Galloni, February 2018, Score: 98+
A seamless, totally captivating wine, the 2015 Latour has no beginning and no end, it simply exists in its own little world of pure and total harmony. Nothing is out of place. Instead, the 2015 captivates both the intellectual and hedonistic senses with its remarkable aromatic depth and textural brilliance. Exotic in its ripeness, with tremendous persistence and dazzling balances, the 2015 really does have it all.The 2015 is 97.1% Cabernet Sauvignon, 2.6% Merlot and 0.3% Petit Verdot. Don't miss it.
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Antonio Galloni, April 2016, Score: 89-91
The 2015 Pauillac is a great introduction to the vintage. Round, succulent and juicy, the 2015 offers lovely depth and radiance throughout. Bright red stone fruit nuances dominate in a wine that will be absolutely delicious whenever Latour decides to release it. Winemaker Helene Genin's decision to add a bit less press wine than normal, along with the radiance of the vintage, has yielded an especially forward, fruit-driven wine in 2015. Tasted two times.
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James Suckling, April 2016, Score: 96-97
This is extremely compressed and elegant with fantastic finesse and structure. Full body, tight and racy. Lots of black currants and black berries. The quality of tannins are like tight, yet velvety tannins. Very minerally.
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Matthew Jukes, April 2016, Score: 19.5++
(97.1 Cabernet Sauvignon, 2.6 Merlot, 0.3 Petit Verdot) 13% alc. 69 IPT. 30% of production.
This is without doubt one of the wines of the vintage for very unusual reasons and it is possibly going to be remembered as one of the wines of the decade, if you consider it is a rare, virtual mono-varietal. The attack and tension here is utterly stunning in the sense that it literally stuns the palate. The fruit is so concentrated and yet so ethereal it is extraordinary. I have never seen ‘pure’ (97%) Cabernet looks so forthright, magnificent, nor more Zen-like and slender. The finish is immense and the line between the entry and the exit is laser driven, except that there is no end to the finish. It simply doesn’t have one...it is still going if not on my palate in my brain. Hélène Genin, technical director at Latour, confirmed that it was made from record levels of Cabernet and this was because the Grand Vin plot is all biodynamically farmed and that this fruit lagged behind the rest and this resulted in the later picked fruit all making the Grand Vin with very little Merlot in the mix. This is a wine which is, frustratingly, not going to be released for many years under the new regime at Latour (the 2000 is actually released this year) and so you will have to wait a while to see what all of the fuss is about.
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Jancis Robinson, April 2016, Score: 18+
Very dark crimson. Scented and quite heady. Lively and muscular. Racy and really pacy. Not a charmer though. Very introvert. Bone-dry finish. A bit more tingle and life than in earlier vintages, though 2014 was probably the turning-point vintage for Latour. Hélène says the wine is more closed today than usual. Drink 2028-2050
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Tim Atkin, May 2016, Score: 97
Containing one of the largest ever percentages of Cabernet Sauvignon, partly because the Merlot wasn’t up to snuff, this is a very pure, focused wine of considerable power and intensity. Pauillac at its very best, with stylish tannins and the concentration to age for two decades or more. Drink: 2028-40
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Jane Anson, March 2023, Score: 98
Aromatically this floats out of the glass, intense and concentrated but full of light and life. Waves of flavour come at you, from crushed raspberries, pomegrante and blackcurrant to fresher redcurrant and lemongrass set against richer truffles, crayon and smoked earth. Mouthwatering, this really is a vintage where you can see the impact of the biodynamic vineyard work, with a greater sense of sculpting and violet florality than you would have found in this Pauillac powerhouse a decade earlier, without sacrificing structure and depth. As it opens, the sweetness of a ripe vintage comes through in edges of smoked caramel. A beautiful wine, thoroughly enjoyable, extremely well-handled and set to power through the decades. Harvest September 15 to October 10, 30% of production in the main wine. Hélène Genin technical director. Drink 2025-2048
