Château Latour, 2016 Releases
That Château Latour withdrew from en primeur sales is old news. So old, in fact, that this most recent of my reports on the annually-released wines is the fourth that I have written up. The tasting is now well bedded-in as part of my increasingly hectic en primeur routine; I always allow a little extra time for my visit, and after tasting the three wines from the latest vintage, I move on to the three wines chosen by the Château Latour team for the late-release program.
This year I tasted with Jean Garandeau, the directeur commercial et marketing. I was eager to learn whether he was content with how the new system was going, although I had a feeling I knew the answer before I had even asked the question.
“The process is going well”, came Jean’s reply. “We started selling the wines in 2013, as we didn’t release the 2012 vintage with the primeurs. It takes a bit of time for people to understand what we are doing, and then to accept it, and then to follow it. After three years we think people understand our logic now”.
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