1995 Château Latour Grand Vin

Community Tasting Notes (233) Avg Score: 94.4 points

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  4/19/2024 - peanutbutterskittles wrote:

  This had darker fruit than the 1996 Haut Brion we had the same evening, and it was immediately more approachable than the other wine. However, it was slightly less powerful and faded a bit, but it was more balanced right out of the bottle.

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  4/19/2024 - NeillB wrote:

  Superb

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  4/17/2024 - Mark1npt Likes this wine: 95 Points

  Dark garnet in the glass. Nose of florals, cedar and black pen ink.
  
  Palate of smooth integrated dark red/black fruit. Perfumed and solid in every way. Perfect acidity at this point. One of my favs of the night.

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  4/9/2024 - platpeeps Likes this wine: 95 Points

  Intense, muscular, powerful and profound; very firm but beneath the tannins was spice and arichness which coated the tongue. The fully extracted black fruits gave off superb complex flavours which lingered for an extraordinary length of time. Amazingly vibrant and youthful I daresay this could go on effortlessly for another 20 years. Perhaps I hate to admit it, but this has the undeniable hallmark of a 1st Growth claret. CHP 95 pts

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  3/16/2024 - Rote Kappelle Likes this wine: 95 Points

  An interesting range of reviews on site, perhaps reflecting the variability of cork as a closure. I have had bitter experience of this, with an '82 I bought that was oxidised beyond repair. No such issue here; the cork was reticent and then stubborn, but I imposed my dialectic driven intellect on it, utilising an engineering and bio-mechanical marvel of combined corkscrew and Ah-So to consign the cork to the dustbin of history. Thus perish all leaches on the body of the working class.
  
  1995 was one of those Bordeaux vintages that attracted accolades at release because it was not as horrid as several years before. In this case the glorious Bordeaux trio of 1988, 89 and 90 were followed by utter stinkers in 1991, 92, 93 and 1994 - a run of crack-whore vintages not seen since the early 1970's, when 1975 was over-rated on the back of years of misery followed by what turned out to be merely a useful year. Thus 1995, where Bordeaux got fruit ripe for the first time in a while but tannin ripeness was an issue.
  
  Latour has a reputation for making great wines in bad or average years and the market certainly thinks that 1995 is one of those, along with another difficult year - 2014. In this case, the market has got it right.
  
  The colour is dense and deep. My bottle shows some distinct bricking along with dark red and almost purple-black.
  
  The nose and palate deliver a truly profound wine. It does take at least 6-8 hours decanted to show its best but then it just powers on so that next day, still in decanter it is even better. These are wines with a reputation for being very long lived and I can see why. Assuming the cork holds. I suspect some reviews on site speaking of austerity reflect not enough time given for this to open up.
  
  The characters are mulberry, almost jube like winegum/cassis, mint/capsicum, Cuban cigar before lighting and a hint of graphite. The finish is ultra-long. Intensity is pretty good and acid is fresh and keeps things looking lively. Tannins are very fine, quite plentiful but they come in late. I do think they are a little sullen and speak of the vintage.
  
  What really elevates this wine is an extraordinary combination of depth of flavours and mouthfeel with an ethereal aspect that makes me think of those feather dancers of an earlier era - now you see things, now you don't.
  
  In the mouth I keep thinking of Merlot dominant wines but that is because of the depth - everything else reflects this wine being Cabernet dominant. Again, this counterpoint takes a very nice wine to a totally different level. Flavour is one tune and texture is the other. People speak of JS Bach as the master of counterpoint (and he did have mastery), but he started off transcribing Vivaldi and the best of Vivaldi's work, I think, shows why. If that is so, who is the master? The answer might be Corelli, but that is a naughty thing to say. If a wine gets you thinking along these lines you know it is a superior thing. This is a wine that would give the German Nihilists in the Big Lebowski something to believe in (even allowing for 'We believe in nuzink, Lebowski. Tomorrow we come back and cut off your Johnson.').
  
  If you want a lot of colour and movement and plenty of obvious statements in your wine, go elsewhere. The subtleties of this wine will leave you disappointed. This is no Grange or Opus 1.
  
  One other thing - I am struck yet again by some stylistic and textural similarities with Yarra Yering #1 and I am also struck by the way Te Mata Estate Coleraine sits with comfort, stylistically and qualitatively with the great wines of Bordeaux.

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