2018 Latour Les Forts de Latour

A fruit bomb of a wine, the 2018 Les Forts De Latour is just about overflowing with sweet cassis and darker currant-like fruit, as well as complex notes of smoked tobacco, flowery incense, and spice. This plush, full-bodied, sexy effort has sweet tannins, a layered, opulent mouthfeel, and a great finish. This sensational effort is based on 65.6% Cabernet Sauvignon, 34% Merlot, and just a splash of Petit Verdot, and it's as good as most châteaux's Grand Vin. Drink bottles any time over the coming 2+ decades.

The just-released 2018 Les Forts de Latour wafts from the glass with aromas of creamy berries, licorice, red fruit compote, cigar wrapper and toasty new oak, followed by a medium to full-bodied, youthfully chewy palate with a sweet core of fruit that can't quite conceal its underlying tannic payload. Like many 2018s, its youthful flesh is receding to reveal structure that will demand some patience to resolve.

A blend of 65.6% Cabernet Sauvignon, 34% Merlot, and 0.4% Petit Verdot, Les Forts de Latour 2018 has a deep garnet-purple color. It storms out of the glass with powerful scents of blackberry pie, boysenberry preserves, and crème de cassis, melding into a background of sandalwood, Indian spices, dusty soil, and licorice, with a hint of dried flowers. The medium to full-bodied palate is powerful and seductive, delivering firm, grainy tannins and seamless freshness to frame the generous flavors of black fruit preserves, finishing long and opulent.