- 1983 Château Latour Grand Vin - France, Bordeaux, Médoc, Pauillac (10/3/2013)
Double decanted by the host, 3 hours prior to being served to us blid, this was a gorgeous bottle from first sip - the aromatics were full of leather, cedar, spice and lingering red fruits. The palate impression was rich and velvety with a lovely sweetness to the fruit. More of the tertiary character came through on the finish, as the fruit did fade rather fast past the mid palate, but each sip brought it all back. Later on at the unveiling we got to have a few more sips and it had continued to flesh out, such that it was even richer at the 5 hour mark. This is a lovely Latour to drink now, though I doubt it is going anywhere, any time soon. - 1975 Château Latour Grand Vin - France, Bordeaux, Médoc, Pauillac (10/3/2013)
Also double decanted by the host, and served blind, this was clearly a partner to the '83 (poured earlier in teh same tasting), as it shared most of the aromatic characteristics, but had significantly less fruit. That being said, it was still an extremely enjoyable drinking experience, more about the cedary, tobacco elements than about fruit. There was a bit of fruit on the palate, but it was swiftly overcome by warm leather and a notably drying/tannic finish. This is a bottling to drink up in my opinion, as it's not going to improve - there's still tannin, and not really much fruit to back it up. Not so bad right now thouigh!