Louis Latour – 2015

19.12.2016billn

Tasted in Beaune with Boris Champy, 12 December 2016.

Maison Louis Latour
18 Rue des Tonneliers
21200 Beaune
Tel: +33 3 80 24 81 00
www.louislatour.com

The 2016 vintage…
“2016? Well, Corton was good, Vosne-Romanée was superb and as for Chambolle-Musigny, there wasn’t much – there wasn’t much in Chambertin either.

“I would say that Savigny was terrible, and in some parts of Beaune it wasn’t much better, we had just one cluster of grapes per vine on average. It’s hard to believe, but the September rain really helped!”

The 2015 vintage…
“The whole estate was picked in 7 days. I would say a good yield. Both white and red – we didn’t really suffer much from the drought.

“Actually in a vintage such as this, I’m trying to convince my colleagues that it would be good to change the data sheets of the white 2015s to suggest serving temperatures a couple of degrees cooler…”

The wines…

Virtually no wc, except a little in Les Chaillots. Despite some red wines already in bottle – I usually a find a tightening after bottling here – this was a super set of wines. Whilst few are worth that special search, the average quality is fully reflective of a great vintage – all taste great and are close to fully recommended.

2015 Beaune 1er Clos du Roi
This already in bottle. ‘Warm years we have the tendency to bottle a couple of months earlier to avoid the wines drying in barrel – so to keep more fruit.’
A big, deep nose of opulent dark-red fruit, yet there is freshness here too. Big, round, really flavour-packed and quite long finishing too. A mouth-full of wine, but very tasty wine!

2015 Domaine Aloxe-Corton 1er Les Chaillots
Not yet bottled. Just underneath the Château Corton Grancey, a large plot of about 4 hectares. Only domaine Roux in St.Aubin the other producer.
A deep nose, just a little mineral – really an attractive fruit. More direct but well padded and really very intense and long finishing – this will need a little patience, but it’s really excellent – fine length as you would expect in this vintage.

2015 Pommard 1er Les Epenots
In bottle. Really a low yield due to the previous years’ hail
Not the deepest colour. Fresh, open complex nose – very inviting – big in the mouth – lots of volume but no fat, just very impressive energy. Finishing with the same energy over again. A more mineral base. I find this excellent

2015 Volnay 1er Mitans
A big and open aromatic – perfumed with flowers – it’s lovely. Direct, intense, beautiful red fruit, really achingly good in the mid-palate. Slowly fading and narrowing but persistent all the same – just lovely wine!

2015 Vosne-Romanée 1er Beaumonts
A lovely and deep nose to fall into – it’s a beauty. Round, a wine of volume in the mouth, but energy. not fat, -led. Lots of flavour complexity, less sweetness but waves of fine finishing flavour, really tasty wine indeed…

2015 Chambolle-Musigny 1er Les Charmes
En fermage.
Here is a beautifully pretty nose, super depth too. Supple, fine of tannin, mouth-watering intense flavours. The finish holds excellently – this is great. Just a super wine.

2015 Corton, Clos de la Vigne au Saint
A wide, dark-fruited nose, complex dark fruits, almost gelée. Super in the mouth despite modest volume, but not modest intensity – waves of flavour, with a little tannin. A hint of licorice in the finish perhaps. This has great potential!

2015 Château Corton-Grancey
Ooh – a bright, persistent and perfectly focused berry fruit to the fore. Supple, more depth of texture, a growing tannin, that’s very fine but bordering on dry. Just a great big, massive Corton, but without hard or sharp edges. This is seemingly classic – wait 20 years to start harvesting!

2015 Corton Perrières
More than 4 ha of Perrières are owned here.
A nice weight of aroma here – dark fruited but with a certain texture. Good volume in the mouth and with a really fine, growing intensity – actually I have to spit to type – I can’t keep it in my mouth at the same time. Super wine, perhaps easier to drink today than the last, but will last equally long. Very yum!

2015 Chambertin
Wide, a little sweet coffee – it grows a floral perfume too. Really fine texture and of-course there’s a great weight of flavour-concentration. True Chambertin, very big but opulently textured and talking non-stop – really fine complexity. Beautiful wine.

2014 Romanée Saint-Vivant
Mainly replanted in 1992, half massale and half clonal – adapting pruning to the two – more severe and still green harvesting in the clones. ‘Unfortunately these clones are on full view next to the road!” says Boris.
Big, perfumed. Dark fruit – lots of aromatic complexity here. Mouth-filling, complex, textured, everything, but nothing in excess – really a very fine weight of finishing flavour that spreads out in the finish a long, slow-moving wave of flavour – and sticks! Great persistence. Super wine, very good RSV!

Les Blancs…
Until we reach the ‘executive’ wines towards the end of the tasting, I tend to agree with Boris – they might seem fresher with a couple of degrees cooler serving temperature.

2015 Beaune 1er Grèves blanc
Hillside, above the Enfant Jesus. Harvested 1st September as this matures very quickly.
A nice big aromatic, some oak hints but really plenty of opulent (in a good way) and interesting aromas. Big, silky, I would again say opulent, weighted fruit flavours. Lots of finishing vivacity, indeed minerality, but from the start to the middle I’d really like a little more energy to carry the wine.

2015 Meursault 1er Château Blagny
Really a wide and attractive nose, very Meursault with a hint of spice. Silky, wide, fine concentration, intense too – here I would say with enough energy and certainly a very lovely mouth-watering finish. Tasty wine – very tasty!

2015 Meursault 1er Perrières
A wide and actually silky nose. Growing higher tones of complexity, almost floral too – acacia? A faint gas, but then a silkiness and a weight of flavour. Really a great finish here with some intensity of flavour. This is a wine that gets better and better in the mouth. – not the most overt acidity but quite fresh enough.

2015 Puligny-Montrachet 1er Les Referts
A wide nose and with plenty of fresh depth too – great texture and a little minerality too, followed by a growing intensity. A lovely finish, with a hint of tannin texture. Again missing overt freshness but very tasty all the same – if you don’t think about it!

2015 Puligny-Montrachet 1er Sous la Puits
This a big, and very nice fresh nose-full of aromas. Super texture, very silky, really with another level of flavour concentration in the mid-palate. It could be fresher, but it’s fine in this respect. Really a super wine…

2015 Chassagne-Montrachet 1er Morgeot
A nose with fresh high tones, faintly herby. Again, a beautiful silky texture followed by a wave of weighted, concentrated flavour. Mineral length. Another very big wine, a little mineral that would benefit from more freshness but is still very tasty.

2015 Bâtard-Montrachet
Latour have signed a lease on a 0.5 ha parcel (whose grapes they have purchased for a while) in the centre of Bâtard where the owner is allowed to call it Clos de Poirier as in the 1800’s cadastres – Pierre Morey has the other half of this lease.
A big deep aroma some sweet apple here. This is big, but actually it is the wine with the most energy – a very attractive and complex wine. Extra-long. Great wine!
2015 Chevalier-Montrachet Les Demoiselles
Less deep than the Bâtard, but more vibrant – very attractive. This is a fine wide and complex wine, with a hint of tannic-like texture. Really very complex on the palate too – more saline. Super wine, certainly a little more mineral but today I’d drink the Bâtard ahead, good as this is…

2015 Corton-Charlemagne
Every day of their harvest they are harvesting Charlemagne – but every day in 2015 at 13.2°! There are 7 different cuvées which are assembled at the end.
A very fine, fresh nose. – lovely. Ooh, this is mineral, silky, growing with some fruit flavour and lots, and lots of lithe muscle. Super long. Of-course I’d like more acidity to counter the richness of flavour, but I also know that 10-year-old wines like this taste fabulous. Still, buy the Bâtard!!

Agree? Disagree? Anything you'd like to add?

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