There are First Growths. And then there is Château Latour.

Not every estate gets to exist in its own category, but Latour has earned that distinction the hard way, over centuries. When this estate releases a wine, the market doesn't hedge or wait for consensus. It pays attention, and it moves.

For years, Latour has held back inventory, releasing wines only when the estate believed they were ready to show themselves properly. That patience is not a marketing posture. It is a philosophy, and the 2019 is the proof.

2019 Château Latour, Pauillac, 1er Cru Classé

100 JD | 100 Wine Independent | 100 Decanter | 100 Wine Palate | 99+ Wine Advocate | 99 Jane Anson

The Wine

Latour's l'Enclos vineyard sits on a gravel ridge above the Gironde, and it has been producing wine on this parcel longer than most wine regions have existed. The 2019 is a blend of 92.5% Cabernet Sauvignon and 7.5% Merlot, drawn from that storied ground during what was, by nearly any measure, a near-perfect growing season. The result is a wine that carries Latour's signature power and structural density without the austerity that sometimes makes young Latour difficult to assess. There is a polish here, a kind of poise, that makes it unusually readable for a wine this young.

What the Critics Are Saying

Jeb Dunnuck, 100 Points: "Another perfect wine... as prodigious as they come... flawless, balanced, structured... will evolve for 40 to 50 years."

Wine Independent, 100 Points: "Exquisitely constructed... a myriad of very fine layers... beautiful tension... finishing epically long."

Decanter, 100 Points: A monumental Pauillac. Blackcurrants, smoky tobacco, slate. A powerful, muscular structure built for the very long haul.

Lisa Perrotti-Brown, Wine Palate, 100 Points: "Rockets out of the glass... cassis, plum preserves, dark chocolate... flamboyantly spicy, epically long."

William Kelley, Wine Advocate, 99+ Points: "A profound wine in the making... one of the most long-lived wines of the vintage... seemingly interminable finish."

Six critics, six scores that leave no ambiguity. The 2019 Latour is not a wine that inspires debate. It inspires waiting lists.

In the Glass

Cassis, graphite, tobacco, and crushed stone. Dense and layered, with that deeply structured backbone Latour collectors know and plan their cellars around. What separates the 2019 is that, for all its concentration and scale, it does not close down on you the way a young Latour often does. There is a shockingly approachable quality here that will make the first decade of its life more rewarding than expected, while still building toward something remarkable over the next three or four.

This is not just a great wine. This is a reference-point Latour.