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Wine: Latour -
Vintage:
1978
Region: France - Bordeaux - Pauillac
Varietal: Bordeaux Blend (Red)
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| Red-brownish colour. Funny vegetable-like scent. Good wine-making here. Harmonious. Goes down without causing much of a stirr. OK, this is Latour, try again. Mmmm...nope. Not really doing it for me. Really not that much to write about this one. |
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| '78 Latour: a great showing for this wine. This was my contribution and this was my third time with this wine in the past 2 years. The nose was musty/funky at first and I was concerned that it might be corked. It blew off. The wine was a bit dumb for the first hour and was definitely the least-favored of the three at that point. Then, after about an hour, it really opened up and developed a deep cedar and cigar-box nose. The mid-section plumped-up and filled out to the point of almost being chewy. Great finish. It was still developing at 3 hours. This bottle would have easily lasted much longer. Latour is just so damn classy. One of my all-time favorites. |
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| The cork came out clean. This was the real thing. Almost black in colour. Nose of cassis and minerals. Plenty of fruit too. Less unctious than the Baron, but more refined and more complex. Good extraction. Excellent balance. Long finish. |
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I recently had the '78 Latour. I have had this wine twice previously and have been blown away by it on both occasions. In fact, this was my 'epiphany wine' and I have been using it as the standard to which I compare mature Bordeaux (funny how our own personal wine development works). My previous notes have been mid-nineties.
The wine was decanted for 1 hour with a small amount of sediment noted. The cork on this bottle was in good shape and the moisture line was about 2/3 the way up (I think Latour has the longest corks in Bordeaux). The color was dark red with a small amount of amber at the edge. The nose was extremely fragrant, the kind of nose that says mature claret: cedar, leather and spice. It filled the room. Although I am a beginner, this is the smell that I have only experienced in well-aged Bordeaux.
On the palate this wine opened up with abundant black currant fruit laced with smoke. Unfortunately, the nose outdid the palate, almost to the point of disappointment. Interestingly, the wine had a slippery mouth feel which I have noted before (perhaps this is what Parker means by the 'iron taste' and 'vitamin supplement'). This wine is clearly at full maturity as evidenced by a lack of tannin and softness. The problem, as happens with mature Bordeaux, was a loss of fruit in the midsection and finish. In fact, it had the dry finish that, for me, signals the beginning of the end. I say drink it now. I gave it a generous 91. |
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