2013 Chateau Latour Reviews
Learn More About the 2013 Chateau Latour Through its Reviews.
2013
Chateau Latour Reviews
95 Pointz James Suckling
“Very enticing sweet tobacco, cedar, tar, and blackcurrant on the nose with hints of black mushrooms and violets. It’s full-bodied with layers of ripe tannins that are still slightly chewy, but show poise and focus. Juicy finish with a berry, iodine and walnut aftertaste. Just a touch of austerity at the end. Savory. Clearly one of the top wines of this very difficult vintage, along with Margaux and Lafleur. Drinkable now, but better in 2024.”
93 Pointz Robert Parker’s Wine Advocate
“Composed of 95.2% Cabernet Sauvignon, 4.4% Merlot, and 0.4% Petit Verdot, the 2013 Latour offers an open-knit, fragrant nose of licorice, sandalwood, rose petals, and cigar box over a core of Black Forest cake, stewed plums, mulberries and redcurrant jelly, plus a waft of cast-iron pan. The elegantly styled, medium-bodied palate (13% alcohol) fills the mouth with intense red and black berry preserves layers, framed by evolved, soft-textured tannins and well-knit freshness, finishing long and spicy. This vintage does not have the power and backbone of an outstanding vintage of Latour, but it is aging gracefully and, still possessing a lot of discernible fruit with plenty of tertiary pizazz, is absolutely delicious to drink right now. This sweet-spot stage is likely to continue for another 5-7 years, before the wine plateaus at a maturity peak and holds for a further 15+ years.”
92 Pointz Wine Spectator
“This delivers a very tightly focused beam of red currant, pomegranate and bitter plum fruit flavors that streak along thanks to finely beaded acidity, showing a hint of graphite through the finish and a beguiling black tea accent. Reveals a lovely sense of precision, maintaining cut through the sneakily long finish. Best from 2017 through 2025. 5,625 cases made.”
91 Pointz Jeb Dunnuck
“The flagship 2013 Chateau Latour comes from a much more challenging vintage and is 95.2% Cabernet Sauvignon, 4.4% Merlot, and a 0.4% Petit Verdot. It shows its more Cabernet dominated blend with a more compact, tight, reserved style that opens up nicely with time in the glass. Revealing a healthy ruby/plum color, it has classic Latour notes of blackcurrants, freshly sharpened pencils, smoked tobacco, crushed stone, and licorice. It doesn't have the depth, richness, or expansiveness to be considered a great Latour but is medium-bodied, has a focused, elegant texture, ripe, silky tannins, and a narrow yet lengthy finish. Given the difficulties in the year, this is certainly a success as the purity of fruit is spot on, the tannins are sweet and polished, and it has plenty of classic Latour character. It should drink nicely over the coming 10-15 years and have a gradual decline.”
91 Pointz Vinous
“The 2013 Latour has quite an austere nose, backward and slightly surly. Light and tertiary black fruit mix with cigar humidor and autumn leaf scents. The palate is better with a gentle grip, fine acidity, and decent balance. You do wish for more fruit on the finish, though there is a greater density on the finish compared with the Lafite-Rothschild. Fine.”
90 Pointz Stephen Tanzer’s
International Wine Cellar
“(95.3% cabernet sauvignon, 4.3% merlot and 0.4% petit verdot; 31.5% of the total production went into the grand vin; 12.7% alcohol): Deep ruby. Fresh aromas of blackcurrant complicated by loam, flint and violet are somewhat camouflaged by a strong oak element. Then smooth and balanced on the palate, with good density and a hint of iron to the fresh dark berry and graphite flavors. Finishes long, with polished tannins. One of the lighter-styled Latours I've tasted to date but a very successful wine for the year, as it has none of the rigid tannins of many other Bordeaux wines in 2013.”
Bonus Reviews
France
93 Pointz Jane Anson, Master of Wine
Inside Bordeaux
“One of the successes of the vintage, with well-hewn tannins and grip. There are plenty of markers of a cool vintage here, in the raspberry, redcurrant, cassis bud and cherry pit flavours, set alongside waves of smoked tea and tomato leaf. One to look out. First year for Hélène Génin as technical director. Only 31% of the production made it into the first wine, meaning 6,000 cases, with almost all of it coming from the 24ha in L'Enclos that were being farmed biodynamically at the time.”
Bonus Reviews
United Kingdom
94 Pointz Decanter
“Very deep in colour, this is muted on the nose, though with black fruits lurking in the background. A compact wine with firm tannins, this also has a welcome juiciness to balance the solid structure. It shows Latour grip and typicity, though on a more modest scale than usual.”
16.5/20 Pointz Jancis Robinson,
Master of Wine
“Only mid blackish/greyish garnet. Nothing like the direct purity and energy on the nose of the Forts 2015, for instance. But everything on the palate is pretty impressive for a 2013. There is some dry tannin on the palate with some sweet fruit. A really good effort for a 2013 but it's pretty drying and stringy on the end and I'd like a bit more fruit on the mid palate. This vintage is a real challenge for a first growth. I'm sure their terroir delivered much better fruit than most properties but still, there is no getting away from the fact that this is not a stellar vintage. It lacks flesh and breadth and is just a bit mean overall. The next day I tasted it and some of the holes had been filled in, suggesting that it may be worth decanting this wine a few hours before serving it. But it's still a bit stringy on the finish. Difficult to see value here. 13%. Drink 2021 – 2031”
ENJOY!