Les Forts de Latour 2018 Ex-Chateau (750MLx6)

94-96 JD / 95 WI / 94-95 JS / 93-95 WE / 94 WS / 94 VM / 93 DE / 93 JA / 17.5 JR

Stepping up on the serious scale, the 2018 Les Forts De Latour checks in as a mix of 65.6% Cabernet Sauvignon, 34% Merlot, and just a splash of Petit Verdot. It boasts a deeper purple color as well as powerful notes of high-class smoke tobacco, graphite, crushed rocks, and ample black and blue fruits. Rich, full-bodied, concentrated, and yet still perfectly balanced, it's another brilliant second wine from Latour that competes with most estates’ top wines. - Jeb Dunnuck

A blend of 65.6% Cabernet Sauvignon, 34% Merlot, and 0.4% Petit Verdot, Les Forts de Latour 2018 has a deep garnet-purple color. It storms out of the glass with powerful scents of blackberry pie, boysenberry preserves, and crème de cassis, melding into a background of sandalwood, Indian spices, dusty soil, and licorice, with a hint of dried flowers. The medium to full-bodied palate is powerful and seductive, delivering firm, grainy tannins and seamless freshness to frame the generous flavors of black fruit preserves, finishing long and opulent. - Lisa Perrotti-Brown, Wine Independent

A solid and steely red with lots of blackcurrant and blueberry character. Medium-to full-bodied and polished, fine tannins. Flavorful finish. - James Suckling

93–95. Barrel Sample. This second wine from Château Latour is impressive in a juicy black fruit flavor and firm tannins. It is opulence in feel yet well structured. It will age well. - Roger Voss, Wine Enthusiast

This is a gorgeous combination of cashmere and graphite, with racy edged cassis and blackberry fruit supported from underneath while light violet, anise and black tea details add range through the finish. A sleek and refined Pauillac that is hard to resist, but will easily handle cellaring. Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot and Petit Verdot. Best from 2022 through 2035. - James Molesworth, Wine Spectator

A solid and steely red with lots of blackcurrant and blueberry character. Medium-to full-bodied and polished, fine tannins. Flavorful finish. - Antonio Galloni, Vinous Media

Richly perfumed on the nose, so aromatic and scented in a heady way - ripe strawberries and blackcurrants. A bit more subdued than I was expecting with a crushed stone texture to the tannins, less plush - more serious, straight, determined and all in one line. Ripe and cool black and blue fruits, less jammy than I was expecting but still with clear depth aided by high acidity and touch of spice and tension around the sides. Nicely textured - a complex glass of wine, definitely not 'easy drinking' right now - give it a few years and a long decant, but this builds and builds, with a great sense of complexity, terroir and minerality to it. - Georgina Hindle, Decanter

In the line up, this is a year older than the Pauillac de Latour, but very clearly deeper and more intense in colour, reflecting the 24hl/h yield after a challenging growing season first with mildew and then with the heat of the summer. The rich texture is immediately apparent, and it needs time to open in the glass, as bottle ageing has tamed the exuberance of En Primeur and given way to a classically muscular expression of the estate character. Those Pauillac tannins are exerting their influence, cradling blackcurrant and damson fruits, cocoa bean, baking spice, graphite, espresso, turmeric and black pepper. A wine that reflects the intensity of the summer, with everything knitted down and austere, I suggest a few more years in bottle before opening to allow more joy to come through, and decant well before serving. 42% of the overall estate production in this wine, 60% new oak.  - Jane Anson, Inside Bordeaux

Tasted blind. Scented, neat and confident on the nose. Neat and focused. Not dramatic but everything is in balance. Long and classic. Just right! - Jancis Robinson