Bordeaux 2015 Primeurs: The Firsts
A visit to Château Latour remains de rigueur during the primeurs, even though this château has withdrawn altogether from primeurs sales. First, this is because the barrel sample informs not only with regard to the wine in question, but also tells us something about the appellation in this vintage, and indeed it contributes to an overall understanding of the vintage. In other words, every data point counts. Secondly, it is worth your while visiting because, alongside the primeur samples, the team also pour tastes of the late-release wines currently making their way onto the market. Who wouldn’t want to pop in for a taste of Château Latour from the 2000 vintage?
The season here progressed smoothly at first, as it did elsewhere. The budbreak was late, coming on April 8th, but flowering was rapid and homogenous, with mid-flowering recorded on June 2nd. July was extraordinarily dry and sunny, with just 15 mm of rain during the entire month, and mid-véraison was a little sluggish as a result, coming August 2nd for Merlot and August 3rd for Cabernet Sauvignon. But then came the rains, over 100 mm in August, reinvigorating the vines which ripened their fruit, followed by over 90 mm in September. Both figures are significantly above average, and the latter is the more worrisome, for reasons already explained on the previous page.
The harvest began on September 15th for the Merlot, finishing September 21st, the Cabernets and Petit Verdot were picked between September 28th and October 10th. Tasting the wines, this is another waterside and well-drained terroir which seems to have been able to brush off any effect of the September rains with considerable ease. The grand vin here is rich, pure and confident, and shows an attractive texture, something missing in many other more ‘inland’ wines. It is very much dominated by Cabernet Sauvignon, which accounts for 97.1% of the blend, this dominance largely down to one block on Merlot in L’Enclos (which is the source of the grand vin) which this year was determined to be of insufficient quality, and was thus declassified into the second wine.
