To many this is the greatest of all the great wines of the Médoc and to some the greatest in the entire region. There is no doubt that it is one of the world’s most remarkable reds, which at its magnificent best is both massive and concentrated but at the same time harmonious and very refined. It requires cellaring and you should allow one or preferably two decades. While the wine performs consistently at a very high level now, a number of vintages in the early to mid-1980s were less impressive, nowhere near its current super ★★★★★ ranking. Fortunately, with a production of over 30,000 cases a year, the wine is not impossible to find – unlike a number of new ‘super’ wines being made elsewhere around the world. Recent vintages have all been very striking. Among the great earlier years 82, 71, 66, 61, 59 and 49 are all legendary. Les Forts de Latour is a very impressive second wine.
