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All tasting notes
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| Drinking Windows and Values |
| Community Tasting History |
| Community Tasting Notes (average 89.4 pts. and median of 89 pts. in 21 notes) - hiding notes with no text | | | Tasted by Bv wallewijn on 8/4/2020 & rated 92 points: A surprisingly bright red colour. No colour evolution at all. Nose impressive, refined delicate scent with not only cassis but remarkably intense dark ripe strawberries. Seemingly still young with still some separation in the primary elements of the taste. Certainly the youngest 79, very promising for this vintage. The acids are somewhat pronounced. Allard Botenga (1691 views) | | | Tasted by epattijn on 11/8/2015 & rated 92 points: Opened two bottles of this and they were awful. Decided to give it another go and this one was really nice. The smell on the cork was already promising. Initially the taste was good but a little light, but fully opened up over the next four hours with lots of red and black fruit and tobacco with a balanced acidity. Loved it!! (4052 views) | | | Tasted by FransS on 5/29/2015 & rated 94 points: Unbelievable, beating the Terreus '03 and the Clinet '05, This Les Forts was so easily to recognize as Latour or Les Forts with its magical cigarbox expression. I was wrong with the vintage, guessing '71 or '85. This wine from a modest vintage had the Latour bouquet, just that slightly severe taste and body with impressions (still!) of dark fruit, very good backbone, long aftertaste, no frays due to age. To repeat, unbelievable; only Latour can do this. My advice, enjoy your remaining bottles soon. A perfect choice of my friend Loek. (4072 views) | | | Tasted by aajder on 9/8/2014 & rated 89 points: Very good color, not that much fading. The nose is fragrant and mature, showing cedar, smoke, flowers, and mature red fruits. This is medium full body on the palate, showing very good concentration. Good finesse. The fairly long finish shows good acidity and the char of the barrels. Integrated tannins. (4535 views) | | | Tasted by RBaird on 2/9/2013 & rated 90 points: wonderful soil tones
The wine looks Ruby colored. The legs are Fast. It smells like Blackberry, and Raspberry. It tastes like Dust, and Rose. The body is Light/Medium. The wine has Smooth texture. The wine finishes Medium. (5710 views) | | | Tasted by tendring on 11/28/2011 & rated 89 points: Wine Education Service - Fine Old Bordeaux (LSE): Dark red with some age.
Attractive perfumed nose, slightly vegetal.
Baked fruit, drinking well, lacking tannin, smooth mid palate, quite long. (4382 views) | | | Tasted by bdgale on 3/11/2011 & rated 95 points: A lot of fun drinking this wine. Took a few hours to open up. Started with a citrus smell, but opened up nicely. Earthy, classic paullic. (4226 views) | | | Tasted by darrenhe on 3/21/2010: Difficult to rate as so far gone wouldn't be fair. Flat and horrible out of bottle and resembled musty cough medicine after decanting! (3862 views) | | | Tasted by TEH on 8/30/2009 & rated 93 points: 30 year old puillac received as a gift. slight orange hue to rim. otherwise cassis aroma, silky texture with wonderfully balanced tannin and med to long finish. Do not think this would have lasted much longer and may have already reached its peak. (3298 views) | | | Tasted by Stephen Pollard on 4/29/2008 & rated 92 points: I drank this last night, assuming that it would be tired and dead. I had forgotten I had it! I could not have been more wrong. It was sensational. We had it alongside a Grange 1982 it knocked it for 6. That wonderful earthy, cabbage, mushroom nose was there in abudance and the taste was complex, rich and deep. What a fantastic surprise. (2964 views) | | | Tasted by Zweder on 6/24/2005 & rated 88 points: Our host called this: “The French Dead Corpses Tasting”. (@ PV): Still remarkable purple hue. In the bouquet cassis, forest floor and mushrooms. On the palate still good black fruit juice, earth, oak, good acidity and bitterness. A well balanced wine which is fully mature, but still a pleasure. (1061 views) | | | Tasted by Zweder on 6/30/2001: Saved this bottle for a special occasion for a special person. But the occasion never came, so I decided to drink this wine before it really gets too old. I was just in time. The wine was still enjoyable, but not really special anymore. I do not “officially” score it, because that would be around 80 or even less. And this wine does not deserve that. (2926 views) | | | Tasted by Zweder on 2/28/1999 & rated 85 points: Still a wine with style, but getting quite old now. (2796 views) | | | Tasted by Zweder on 11/30/1998: A wine past its prime, but it still offers nice drinking. See my previous notes; only the wine is really on its way down now. No score (or it would be 85) (2525 views) | | | Tasted by Zweder on 9/30/1997 & rated 86 points: The wine is at the end of its mature life now and still a pleasure to drink. The Pauillac characteristics are still there; good cassis, a little lead pencil and good oak, but the tannin is completely soft and ready now. This can only go down. (2403 views) | | | Tasted by Zweder on 2/28/1995 & rated 88 points: Nice and complex bouquet with a lot of good toasted oak and cassis fruit. Fruity, fairly full bodied, some cassis and soft tannin. The wine is completely ready now and already less impressive than some years ago. Drink it soon. (2378 views) | | | Tasted by Zweder on 11/26/1994 & rated 86 points: Bordeaux, St. Julien with a few extra's (@ My place): Do not know what is wrong with this bottle. The bouquet was a little disappointing. The taste not extremely full bodied, but on the other hand juicy and fruity. It has complexity, but the wine lacks real concentration. An odd bottle, but I nevertheless score it; it was not really bad. (2994 views) | | | Tasted by Zweder on 9/20/1991 & rated 90 points: Deep dark purple. The bouquet is creamy with cassis, oak, liquorice and lead pencil. Quite complex. The taste is full bodied and round with good ripe cassis and soft as well as firm tannin. The wine is still in its puberty stage. Great wine! (2789 views) | | | Tasted by FransS on 2/11/1991 & rated 91 points: A Latour - Les Forts tasting: a deep, and young, red colour, a bit farmyard, leather and some sweetness behind, a firm taste, bit severe, but sufficiently balanced; however still on its way to its ripeness. (276 views) | | | Tasted by Zweder on 1/6/1989 & rated 87 points: I am working through my notes at random (to get them published here so I can find them back more easily…thanks Eric…) and now I started with some older notes. Good I came across this wine, because the notes I published before were not that positive. My TN from this moment: Dark purple red. Creamy bouquet with cassis, liquorice and little lead pencil. A little backward, but very promising. Soft and just a little sticky tannin which reminds me of 1982. Good and friendly acidity. Cassis in the taste, good bitterness and oak. Long aftertaste with cassis again. A very good, but a little straight forward wine at this moment, Very harmonious, but the finesse is not really showing yet. Supple already, but give it 3 – 5 more years and you will be rewarded. (2778 views) | | | Tasted by MicklethePickle on 12/1/1988 & rated 82 points: With MPL at the office. Red ruby; lighter rim. Cherry/cranberry nose. On entry, austere, even unpleasant. Gained in richness and weight in mid-palate and beyond to a ripe finish. A bit sour overall. Ready to drink but not terribly attractive. 5-9-13-5: 82/100. (222 views) |
| Les Forts de Latour Producer website | Read more about Les Forts de Latour
Red Bordeaux BlendRed Bordeaux is generally made from a blend of grapes. Permitted grapes are Cabernet Sauvignon, Cabernet Franc, Merlot, Petit Verdot, Malbec and rarely Carménère.Today Carménère is rarely used, with Château Clerc Milon, a fifth growth Bordeaux, being one of the few to still retain Carménère vines. As of July 2019, Bordeaux wineries authorized the use of four new red grapes to combat temperature increases in Bordeaux. These newly approved grapes are Marselan, Touriga Nacional, Castets, and Arinarnoa.
Wineries all over the world aspire to making wines in a Bordeaux style. In 1988, a group of American vintners formed The Meritage Association to identify wines made in this way. Although most Meritage wines come from California, there are members of the Meritage Association in 18 states and five other countries, including Argentina, Australia, Canada, Israel, and Mexico.France Vins de France (Office National Interprofessionnel des Vins ) | Pages Vins, Directory of French Winegrowers | French Wine (Wikipedia)
Wine Scholar Guild vintage ratings
2018 vintage: "marked by a wet spring, a superb summer and a good harvest"
2019 vintage reports
2021: "From a general standpoint, whether for white, rosé or red wines, 2021 is a year marked by quality in the Rhône Valley Vineyards. Structured, elegant, fresh and fruity will be the main keywords for this new vintage."
2022 harvest: idealwine.info | wine-searcher.comBordeaux Bordeaux Wine Guide
Vins Bordeaux (Conseil Interprofessionnel du Vin de Bordeaux)
History of Bordeaux
History of 1855 Bordeaux Classification
"2009 is all about ripeness, with wines impressively packed with ripe fruit and high alcohol levels. They are showy, in-your-face, and full of pleasure. The 2010s have the fruit and alcohol levels of the 2009s, but with a compelling freshness on the finish that balances the fruit and provides a perfect sense of structure." - Ben Nelson
"2016 is a landmark vintage in certain spots of Bordeaux and it should be remembered as one of the most inspired campaigns of the last 40-50+ years." -Jon Rimmerman
"The quality of red Bordeaux in 2016 was universally lauded – although the response to the en primeur campaign was muted. Quantity was high too, with the equivalent of 770 million bottles of wine produced. An exceptionally dry summer with cool nights eventually, thanks to mid September rain, resulted in small, thick-skinned, ripe grapes, and the wines are marked by high tannin and acidity, with superb aromatic fragrance." - Jancis Robinson
"2017 was complicated, but there are some excellent wines. Expect plenty of freshness and drinkability from wines that will offer excellent value, and others that will rival 2016 in terms of ripeness and ageability. But they are likely to be the exception not the rule, making careful selection key." - Jane Anson
"In the past, a vintage such as 2022 may have been overripe, raisined and low in acidity but 2022 had a sneaky little reservoir in its back pocket - a near perfect marriage of cool/cold/rain the previous winter and the previous vintage that literally soaked the soils (a key to why 2022 is not 2003...or 1893)." - Jon RimmermanMédoc Vins du Médoc (Conseil des Vins du Médoc) - Read More about the Medoc
VdB
The eight precisely defined appellations of the whole of the Médoc (from Blanquefort Brook to the north of the Bordeaux built-up area, almost to the Pointe de Grave) may claim the Médoc appellation. But there is also a specific territory in the north of the peninsula which produces exclusively wines with this appellation. In the great majority, the Médocs come from the north of the peninsula. The great individuality of this region is that the number of vines has increased more recently here than elsewhere, apart from a few isolated spots where vines have grown for many years. Today, the size of the small estate has brought about the development of a powerful co-operative movement. Four co-operatives out of five belong to the group called Unimédoc which ensures aging, bottling and marketing a large proportion of their wines.Pauillac Read more detailed information about Pauillac Looking full onto the river from the earliest days, with an important port activity, traces of which go back to ancient times (shipment of bronze as long ago as 2000 B.C.), Pauillac's life has always been intimately linked to the history of wine. Although port activities were at the root of its prosperity, Pauillac had to wait until the eighteenth century when Bordeaux ceased to hold its privileged position to become a wine port. The town then became the natural outlet for the wine production of neighbouring cantons before reaching its zenith in a period when the vineyards were exceptionally prosperous.
The characteristic of the Pauillac terroir is its exceptional relief: the many undulating ridges make it unique morphologically speaking. Highly favourable conditions facilitate the dissection of the layer of gravel. This thin, Garonne gravel from whose very poverty springs great richness, has an extremely effective natural drainage.
With their velvet red colour with a hint of amber, the wines from the Pauillac appellation, full-bodied and rich in tannin, are vigorous. Powerful when young, their aromas of red fruits (black-currant, raspberry) or flowers (violets, roses, irises) melt with the passing of time into a bouquet which is long in the mouth.
Rich and complex, the wines of Pauillac deserve to be laid down for a little longer.
Production conditions (Decree dated November 14, 1936)
In order to have the right to the Pauillac appellation of controlled origin, red wines must:
- come from the commune of Pauillac and from precisely defined parcels in the communes of Cissac, Saint-Julien, Saint-Estèphe and Saint-Sauveur, "excluding the parcels situated on recent alluvium and sand on impermeable subsoils",
- satisfy precise production conditions : grape-varieties (Cabernet-Sauvignon, Cabernet-Franc, Carmenère, Merlot Noir, Petit Verdot, Cot or Malbec), minimum of sugar (178 grammes - 6.27 oz. - per litre of must) degree (an acquired 10°5) base yield (45 hectolitres per hectare). |
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