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.

Richly perfumed on the nose, so aromatic and scented in a heady way - ripe strawberries and blackcurrants. A bit more subdued than I was expecting with a crushed stone texture to the tannins, less plush - more serious, straight, determined and all in one line. Ripe and cool black and blue fruits, less jammy than I was expecting but still with clear depth aided by high acidity and touch of spice and tension around the sides. Nicely textured - a complex glass of wine, definitely not 'easy drinking' right now - give it a few years and a long decant, but this builds and builds, with a great sense of complexity, terroir and minerality to it.

In the line up, this is a year older than the Pauillac de Latour, but very clearly deeper and more intense in colour, reflecting the 24hl/h yield after a challenging growing season first with mildew and then with the heat of the summer. The rich texture is immediately apparent, and it needs time to open in the glass, as bottle ageing has tamed the exuberance of En Primeur and given way to a classically muscular expression of the estate character. Those Pauillac tannins are exerting their influence, cradling blackcurrant and damson fruits, cocoa bean, baking spice, graphite, espresso, turmeric and black pepper. A wine that reflects the intensity of the summer, with everything knitted down and austere, I suggest a few more years in bottle before opening to allow more joy to come through, and decant well before serving. 42% of the overall estate production in this wine, 60% new oak.

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.

The 2018 Pauillac de Latour, bottled in June 2020, has a floral, almost Margaux-like bouquet with a mixture of red and black fruit infused with crushed violet and a nuanced pencil box note in the background. The palate is medium-bodied and quite animated upon opening. The acidity is a little more heightened than I expected. With modest weight, the 2018 is linear yet reassuringly elegant towards the finish. Contemplating this Troisième Vin, maybe it is more low-key than expected, but in a positive sense. It should drink well over the next decade.

Tasted blind. Scented, neat and confident on the nose. Neat and focused. Not dramatic but everything is in balance. Long and classic. Just right! (JR)

65.6% Cabernet Sauvignon, 34% Merlot, 0.4% Petit Verdot. 2.4% press wine. 42% of production. Barrel sample. Black core, purple rim. Intense pure blackcurrant. Dark and scented. Lively, juicy and fresh. More supple than the Pauillac with greater tannic finesse. Lightly charry, savoury and refined and the texture is really elegant even though there's a big tannic charge. Dark, savoury harmony. Direct and long and more aromatic and floral with air. (JH)