Château Latour 2017 received 99 points from James Suckling, 98 points each from Wine Advocate, Decanter and Wine Spectator, and 97 points from Vinous, placing it among the finest Latour vintages of the past twenty years and confirming what many specialists have argued since the wine was first available: that 2017 Latour significantly outperforms the general vintage assessment for the left bank Médoc as a whole. Latour’s decision to bottle wines at the estate and release them only when the team considers them at peak drinking maturity, abandoning the en primeur system entirely, means that the 2017 is being released later than most Bordeaux estates would have offered this vintage, ensuring a level of bottle development and integration that the en primeur model cannot provide. The wine is offered in this catalogue in two original wooden case configurations, OWC6 (a standard six-bottle original wooden case) carrying the estate’s certification and provenance guarantee.

Château Latour is the most consistently and monumentally structured of the five first-growth estates in the Médoc, producing wines from its Grand Enclos vineyard on Pauillac’s finest deep gravel terroir that are capable of developing for fifty years or more in the finest vintages. The 2017 Latour occupies a position similar to the celebrated 2014 in the estate’s modern history: a vintage initially underestimated by comparison with its warmer and more generous immediate neighbours, but which has proved with additional time in the cellar to deliver wines of exceptional precision, freshness and classical Pauillac structure that develop beautifully over time. James Suckling described the 2017 Latour as a wine of “incredible structure and tannic backbone” whose “velvety tannins and great minerality” confirm its place among the finest modern expressions of this first-growth Pauillac.

A Château Latour from any great vintage, released by the estate only when considered ready to drink, is an acquisition whose significance in any serious Bordeaux collection requires no further argument. The 2017’s five-publication critical consensus at 97-99 points confirms it as one of the most important and well-documented Pauillac acquisitions currently available on the open market.

Deep ruby with a precise and layered nose of blackcurrant, cedar, graphite, tobacco, crushed stone, dark mineral and the distinctive dense Pauillac gravel-mineral character of the Latour Grand Enclos. Full-bodied with extraordinary, velvety tannin depth, electric natural acidity and a finish of virtually endless mineral persistence and classical Pauillac authority. Best from 2028 through 2060.

A Latour with incredible structure and tannic backbone. Blackberries, currants, violets, tar and graphite on the nose. Full body, velvety tannins, great minerality and a finish that just goes on and on. This is a classic Pauillac and a classic Latour that will improve significantly over the next two decades. — James Suckling

The 2017 Latour is a masterful wine, quite Latour-esque in the most classic sense. It’s beautifully delineated on the nose with blackcurrant, dark berry, lead pencil and floral nuances. A profound wine, powerful but refined. — Wine Advocate