Les Forts De Latour 2005 (1.5L)

94 WS / 94 JS / 93 RP / 92 VM / 92 WE

Shows blackberry, coffee, cedar, and raisin on the nose, turning to licorice and fresh flowers. Full-bodied, with refined, silky tannins and a long finish. Balanced and juicy. Builds on the palate, with currant, licorice and mineral character, followed by a powerful finish. An amazing second wine. Best after 2015. 13,330 cases made. - Wine Spectator

Very classy with plenty of raspberry, currant, and licorice character. This is dense and compacted on the palate. Leave it for at least two or three years from now. Tasted April 2012. James Suckling

The 2005 Les Forts de Latour is another beautiful wine from this estate. Medium to full-bodied, with a dense ruby/purple color, loads of blackcurrant fruit, earth, and spice, the wine is extremely pure, broad, savory, and quite expensive. This is a fabulous second wine, but in essence, this is really of classified growth quality. Drink it over the next 20+ years. Robert Parker, Wine Advocate

Good red-ruby. Exotic aromas of roasted plum, currant and graphite. Big, round and sweet but with the broad shoulders of the year. The silky flavors of currant, tobacco and sweet oak show extraordinary baby fat and volume. Wonderfully rich, expressive wine with a very long, silky, aromatic back end. Better than the 2007 Latour today, and almost as long, says Engerer. Stephen Tanzer, Vinous Media

Always the equivalent of many classed growths, Les Forts de Latour is hardly a second wine, deriving from a particular parcel of the Latour vineyard. This 2005 is beautifully balanced, with lively fresh acidity, dense tannins and ripe, juicy black fruits. The acidity stays right to the end. — Roger Voss, Wine Enthusiast