Pauillac · first growth (1er grand cru classé) in 1855
Château Latour: available vintages, prices and pairings
The grand vin of Latour and Les Forts de Latour, vintage by vintage, with the format, the indicative price and what to expect from it today: ready to drink, or to keep. Tick what interests you, and the quote goes out with your selection.
Vintages on the price list
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Two wines, one estate
Same estate, same team, two uses.
Château Latour
The grand vin, from the Enclos, the vineyard around the tower on the banks of the Gironde, on the border with Saint-Julien. Overwhelmingly cabernet sauvignon. The slowest of the first growths to open up: fifteen years at least, fifty and more of good form.
Les Forts de Latour
The second wine, ready at around eight or ten years. Since Latour stopped selling en primeur, it too is released when the château judges it ready to drink.
François Pinault has owned Latour since 1993. In 2012, the château stopped selling its wines en primeur: it keeps them in its cellars and puts them on sale years later. The tower on the label recalls an old fort; the one you see among the vines is a 17th-century dovecote. Immediate neighbours: Léoville Las Cases, in Saint-Julien, and Pichon Baron. The appellation's other châteaux are on the Pauillac wines page.
The Enclos accounts for 47 of the estate's 96.5 hectares: a rise that climbs to 16 metres above the Gironde, 300 metres from the estuary. At its heart, clayey gravels where the roots go down as far as 3 metres; around the edges, gravelly sands kept for merlot. The vineyard is about 76% cabernet sauvignon, 22% merlot and 2% petit verdot. The château rates 1988 as a great classic year, after a very dry August and September. 1998, harvested between showers, remains a vintage for laying down, with fruit close to 1988 but riper. 1999 is rated a very good year.
What to serve it with
- A vintage more than twenty years old: furred game, venison or hare (wine with game), dry-aged rib of beef (wine with beef).
- Les Forts de Latour: Pauillac lamb (wine with lamb), entrecôte bordelaise.
- With cheese: an old Comté, an extra-aged Mimolette (wine with cheese).
Which vintage for which occasion
For a birthday or a wedding anniversary, the year you want, if the table has it (birth-year vintage). In magnum, for a table of ten or as a gift: the format ages more slowly and gets noticed. A Latour under fifteen years old is almost always opened too early.
Is Château Latour a classified growth?
Yes. It is a first growth (premier grand cru classé) in the 1855 classification, in the Pauillac appellation. Les Forts de Latour, its second wine, is not classified.
Why does Latour no longer sell en primeur?
Since the 2012 vintage, the château keeps its wines in its cellars and sells them when it judges them ready, years after the harvest. The buyer pays for an older wine, stored at the château, with straightforward provenance.
When should you drink a Château Latour?
Allow fifteen years before opening it and fifty years of good form, a little more in a great year, a little less in a weak year or in half bottle; for Les Forts, eight to twenty-five years. The table applies this rule to each line; it isn't a tasting note, and a badly stored bottle ages faster.
Are the prices shown the prices on the quote?
They are the indicative prices from the price list, incl. VAT, per bottle of the format, excluding delivery. The quote confirms the price, the availability of each vintage and the shipping; the delivery grid gives lead times. For a vintage not in the table, the quote request is still open.