1986 Château Latour

The 1986 Latour is a vintage that has constantly left me disappointed in context of the growing season and the performance of its peers such as Mouton-Rothschild or Léoville Las Cases. This last bottle did nothing to change my opinion. It just feels enervated on the nose, as if it cannot be bothered to offer much more than dusty black fruit tinged with leather. The palate is foursquare, lighter than one would expect, the acidity nicely judged, but the fruit has always been lacking and there is no sense of density or ambition towards the finish. I sometimes wonder how this wine comes from the same vineyard that produced the 1982 or 1990! Tasted at a private dinner in London.

Tasted at the Academie du Vin from double magnum, even despite the large format and perfect provenance, the 1986 Latour still falls somewhat short of what you would expect given that this was a great Left Bank vintage. Now at 30 years of age, the nose is rather lackluster with dusty, soft, red berry fruit, with mossy and damp autumn leaves. The palate is medium-bodied with ferrous red berry fruit, firm and obdurate tannin, masculine and foursquare but without the requisite fruit concentration, which renders this Latour a bit...dour. With its herbaceous finish, one can only take solace in the fact that this First Growth cleaned up its act, pulled up its socks and has produced far superior vintages since this. Tasted April 2016.

This looked relatively mature. Rich and sweet. There was an element of rusty nails about this and I decided it was either St-Julien or Pauillac. Quite dense. Sweet and vibrant. Long. Beefy. But there was notable acidity and dry tannins on the finish. I guessed it as a 1986 but didn't assume it was a first growth. This was not Latour's most glorious period. (JR)