Exquisite aromas of lavender, cigar ash and Spanish cedar with dried citrus follow through to a medium body and a solid palate with powerful, ultrafine and linear tannins. The muscle and long finish are so beautiful. Give it two or three years but already a solid wine.

Cedar, tobacco leaf, cigar box, black currants, mint leaf, and blackberries come through on the nose. On the palate, the wine is elegant, fresh, lifted, and packed with sweet deep red fruits, spice, oregano, and leafy notes. The finish offers richness, length, and vibrancy. The wine is a blend of 65.8% Cabernet Sauvignon, 31.9% Merlot and 2.3% Petit Verdot. 14.3% ABV. Drink from 2027-2044.

The 2019 Les Forts de Latour is a powerhouse. Dark and ample in the glass, the Forts de Latour shows all of its natural breadth in 2019, but amplified to a considerable degree. The 2019 is an especially somber Forts endowed with tons of richness as well as structure. Blue/purplish fruit, lavender, spice, menthol, chocolate and licorice build into the substantial finish. The 2019 is shaping up to be a jewel of a wine.

Composed of 65.8% Cabernet Sauvignon, 31.9% Merlot, and 2.3% Petit Verdot, the 2019 Les Forts de Latour is deep garnet-purple in color. It opens with classic scents of cedar, cassis, and plum preserves, followed by suggestions of bay leaves, lavender, and crushed rocks. The medium to full-bodied palate is tight-knit, bright, and refreshing, with fine-grained tannins and a mineral-laced finish.

The 2019 Les Forts de Latour appears to have tightened up a little since I last tasted it a few years ago. Unwinding in the glass with aromas of sweet cassis fruit mingled with hints of cedar, iris, orange zest and new oak, it's medium to full-bodied, lively and nicely concentrated, with a ripe core of fruit underpinned by chalky structuring tannins. While it's approachable after a decant, it certainly merits additional patience.

Restrained and more subdued than the Pauillac de Latour, but this has momentum and character, and is lip-smackingly moreish. Brambled blackberry fruits are contrained within sinewy and fairly serious tannins, with liqourice, tobacco, slate, rosemary and truffle. Not the concentration of a vintage like 2016 in this wine, but hard to argue with, and should be ready to drink within five or six years.

A captivating nose of milk chocolate, cola, cherries, and violets, offering a soft and inviting bouquet. The palate is fully textured, opening gradually to coat the cheeks and tongue in a fine layer of chalky tannins. Juicy and succulent through the mid-palate, it bursts with citrus zest, orange and lemon pith, cranberries, and red cherries. There’s a beautiful interplay of bite and tension, with a sapid freshness and a mineral core of crushed stones and iron. The finish ends bright, minty, and herbal, delivering great drive and persistence. Georgina Hindle.

The 2019 Les Forts de Latour has an open nose, strangely perhaps a little more expressive than the 2020 Pauillac de Latour at the moment. Scents of blackberry, cassis and iris flower unfold in the glass. The palate is medium-bodied with crushed stone infusing the black fruit. This has attained more linearity since I encountered it in January 2023. The 2019 will give two or three decades of pleasurable drinking.

The 2019 Les Forts De Latour is more open, expressive, and complex, with a medium to full-bodied style as well as terrific aromatics of ripe currants, leather, graphite, and cedary spice. I love its overall purity, and it has fabulous balance and outstanding length. Coming from slightly less ideal parcels (those farther from the Gironde estuary), it doesn't have the density of the 2020 or 2022 but shines for its overall equilibrium and elegance, while still bringing some solid Pauillac power.