1978 Chateau Latour Pauillac

1978 Chateau Latour Pauillac

Chateau Latour cannot go wrong with most vintages, it’s definitely the most consistent first growth Bordeaux wine even during poor vintages like 1968, 1972, 1988 … etc. Many people overlooked 1978 thinking it’s an average vintage, including many wine critics, how I wish I can proof them wrong! In general, yes it was just an average vintage, but for Pauillac and Graves, this was a superb vintage! I recalled stunning Pichon Baron, Lafite and even Lafite’s neighbour Leoville Las Cases (Saint Julien, not Pauillac). However, those with high merlot content like Pichon Lalande was just average. This Latour has all the best character of the best Pauillac added together, a sip and I can feel huge amount of energy being unleashed! This was a good sign that this wine is going to be able to age for another few more decades effortlessly, and at this stage it just entered the start of the drinking window, but already told me so much about the wine! It has huge amount of secondary characters and we’re not even talking about the hidden character of tertiary not surfacing at all (but I am able to detect them due to drinking too much good stuff). I’m confident it’ll bein decades to come!

26 Oct 2017
GREATEST FRENCH ‘78 4/7
I organized the best of the best French wines ‘78 and confined it to Bordeaux, Burgundy and Rhone only. Trying to find what region produced the best ‘78. All served double blind. I had this bottle probably last year, and I didn’t hesitate to give it 5 stars as it was totally memorable. This bottle was half corked, as the capsicum and green notes along with dry cupboard was screaming. Content was dry, it didn’t wake up from the cork taint, too bad to kiss it goodbye for top ‘78!

11 Jul 2016
SUPERB LATOUR
How can anyone not like Ch Latour, once in your lifetime this is a wine you must have at least a glass, then life is worth it. I cannot recall which vintage I have rated it lesser than 5 stars, all Latours deserved 5 stars.
A very powerful nose, typical of Pauillac, specifically Latour's unique character. Content was extremely balanced, extremely creamy, superb structure, rich and elegant. Aged Latours are to die for, no other Pauillac can produce such quality, not even Lafite nor Mouton.