This vintage seems to really suit Latour and the Forts was tasting truly wonderful. It’s easy to see why they get frustrated with this being thought of as a second wine because it’s easily shoulder-to-shoulder with many famous grands vins. Voluptuous and alluring but still steely and precise, this shows how good things are at Latour right now.

This is really excellent. Love the nose of minerals, violets and berries. Full body, with super fine tannins and a long, long finish. Slightly lean but seamless tannins.

The tannins are still young and present, but aromatically it is beginning to open, and this is a good time to drink this Les Forts - blueberries abound, with a delicious spicy black pepper and rosemary edge. 0.5% Cabernet Franc completes the blend. 43% of production in Forts. Harvest September 12 to 26. Drinking Window 2021 - 2045
Blind tasted by Jane Anson (at Bordeaux, 19 Feb 2021)

This wine is sleek, velvety, caressing even, with no angles at all, offering pure cherry preserves and floral notes, with a long, cassis-infused finish that expands nicely as this airs. Tasted non-blind.—J.M.

[62CS/35M/3PV] Dense, ripe black fruit and pebbly minerality; elegant middleweight of a moderate concentration and a very fine, lightly dry tannin; sweet, juicy, open ripe fruit in flavour, with a gentle ‘race’ and complexity; pure, subtly mineral, long and even to taste, with a delicious flesh, and superb length. Very nice indeed. 2020-30 [M.Schuster, Bordeaux Mar/Apr 2012]

One of the finest second wines now being made, Les Forts de Latour comes from the same parcel every year. The 2011 is composed of 61.5% Cabernet Sauvignon and 38.5% Merlot. Forty-three percent of the Latour production was relegated to this cuvee. Its opaque purple color is accompanied by a big, sweet nose of creme de cassis, underbrush, licorice and incense. Medium to full-bodied, deep, fleshy and already appealing, this 2011 should gain complexity over the next 5-7 years, and last for 15-20. By the way, Latour harvested relatively late for the Medoc, beginning the harvest on September 12 and finishing on September 26.

The Les Forts de Latour is a blend of 61.5% Cabernet Sauvignon, 35% Merlot, 0.5% Cabernet Franc and 3% Petit Verdot. It has a strict, clinical bouquet with blackberry, boysenberry, crushed stone and a strong graphite seam. The palate is very precise on the entry, a little grainy in texture with fine minerality. It is unashamedly classic, nothing out of place, a second wine with its shirt tucked in and its tie done right up to the collar...and I like it for that. Tasted April 2012.

Drink 2020-2035 61.5% Cabernet Sauvignon, 35% Merlot, 0.5% Cabernet Franc, 3% Petit Verdot. Initial impression of toast and char. Dark and savoury. Unexpectedly fluid on the palate even though it has a firm framework but the framework is transparent to the purity of the fruit. Not in the least luscious. Short pile so it is firm but carpeted on the palate. (JH) 13.08%