March 19, 2025
Release: Latour 2016 - 10x perfect 100-point ratings
Latour 2016: “A monumental wine from Latour”
10 x Perfect 100-Point Ratings
“The 2016 Latour is magnificent. Regal and nuanced, with tons of energy, the 2016 is immediately captivating”
“A benchmark Latour that reminds me of the 1982 in many ways”
“Retasting the 2016 Château Latour next to both the 2010 and 2022 had me feeling like a kid in a candy store”
“Château Latour’s 2016 grand vin is a knockout—perfectly encapsulating the estate’s paradoxical signature of at once possessing jaw-dropping power with hauntingly gorgeous fragrance and finesse: Bordeaux’s iron fist in a velvet glove.”
The Latour 2016 release is a once in a lifetime wine and we don’t ever recall the critics being so unanimous in their 100-point ratings. There is not one, but 10 perfect 100-point ratings followed by the best notes we’ve seen in a long time.
Neal Martin summarised it nicely for us with “This is everything you could really wish for in a Latour. The 2016 can be uttered in the same breath as the 1900, 1924, 1959, 1961, 1982 and 2010. Magnificent”.
Scores for Latour 2016:
Latour 2016 is undoubtedly a wine that deserves a place in any serious collector’s cellar. As one of the most exceptional vintages from this historic estate, anticipation has been high—especially when it comes to the release price. The question on everyone’s mind: at what level will this benchmark vintage enter the market?
With the first tranche set at €615, we believe Chateau Latour has struck the right balance. This pricing reflects both the pedigree of the wine and the estate’s long-term approach to the market. For a detailed comparison, see the table below.
Once the initial release sells out, prices inevitably rise as demand shifts to the secondary market. With strong global interest in top-tier vintages like this, collectors and investors alike drive prices higher, making the first tranche an opportunity not to be missed.
Acting quickly on opportunities like this is essential. This offer won’t be around for long, and we expect allocations to be snapped up by collectors and investors before the day is out.
We have a small amount live on our website which is first come first served - act fast if you’re looking to add this wine to your collection.
Latour 2016
€615* In Bond per bottle
100 Points | Vinous - Neal Martin
The 2016 Latour is a vintage that I have tasted a couple of times post-bottling. On one occasion, it warranted a perfect score, but that was then moot since this vintage had not been released. Now that it is due to hit the shelves this coming March, does the wine still merit that three-digit accolade? Without question, yes. Deep lucid deep purple in color, it seems to shimmer in the glass. The bouquet plays with you, a bit of a femme fatale, distant for the first few minutes during which I chatted with the superstar of this First Growth, winemaker Hélène Genin. Then, it magically coalesces and gains incredible intensity with blackberry, pencil lead, background hints of oyster shell and notes of Japanese wakame. The aromatics announce exactly which château you are doing business with. The palate is medium-bodied with filigree tannins, again, as I found before, blessed with beguiling symmetry and ineffable poise. Residing firmly on the black side of the fruit spectrum, there is underlying mineralité. Veins of cassis run through the persistent finish. This is everything you could really wish for in a Latour. The 2016 can be uttered in the same breath as the 1900, 1924, 1959, 1961, 1982 and 2010. Magnificent.
100 Points | Vinous - Antonio Galloni
The 2016 Latour is magnificent. Regal and nuanced, with tons of energy, the 2016 is immediately captivating. The bouquet announces an important wine, a feeling that builds through the wine's mid-palate. There's a real feeling of exuberance in 2016, and yet the wine remains quite classic in its structural composition. Beams of supporting tannin extend the effortless, beautifully persistent finish. Unforgettable.
100 Points | Tim Atkin MW
Regular readers will know that I don’t scatter 100 point scores like confetti, but this is worth every one of them and is the wine of the vintage. Violet, green herb and blueberry notes are framed by sensuous tannins, deftly integrated new oak and a finish that lasts for a minute or more. A stunning wine. 2030-45
100 Points | Decanter, Georgina Hindle
A monumental wine from Latour. This isn't yet ready to drink but offers an impactful and promising palate full of muscle, tension and length. A complex nose filled with pencil lead, crayon, cola, mint, dried herbs, violets, and tobacco, layered with cocoa powder and espresso nuances. On the palate, it is both generous and controlled, suave and slick, with an effortless texture that fills the mouth with bright red fruits and cool, stony elements. The wine expands beautifully, with a powdery, fleshy grip leading to a long, mineral-driven finish marked by wet stones, graphite, and cola. Still compact and somewhat caged, the tannins remain firm and structured, almost austere in their tension. It carries a sense of power and poise, but still with supreme charm. 3.7pH.
100 Points | The Wine Independent, Lisa Perrotti-Brown
The 2016 Latour is a blend of 92.9% Cabernet Sauvignon and 7.1% Merlot. Deep garnet-purple in color, it gives nothing away for the first few moments of swirling, then begins to offer suggestions of freshly crushed blackcurrants and blackberries, followed by suggestions of lilacs, charcoal, iron ore, and black truffles, plus wafts of fragrant soil and garrigue. The medium-bodied palate is like an atomic bomb waiting to go off, taut with tightly wound black fruits and mineral layers, supported by firm, super-ripe, grainy tannins, finishing on an epically persistent ferrous note.
100 Points | Jane Anson Inside Bordeaux
Impressively precise and muscular, no question that this needs longer in the bottle before really being ready to drink, but everything is in place for decades of pleasure. Smart timing of this release, a vintage that underlines without question just why Latour is so revered, and why there is a clear logic to holding it back at the estate for almost a decade, allowing the first part of its ageing cycle to take place under fully controlled conditions. Very much a classic Pauillac, with confidence and character, waves of mint leaf, coffee bean, cola, crushed rocks, crayon and liqourice root, opening up to show fragrant nuances of rose petals and peony. 100% new oak for ageing. Hélène Genin technical director, Eric Boissenot consultant, and at this point Latour was farming entirely organically and biodynamically, with organic certification coming in 2018.
100 Points | James Suckling
I am dreaming as I smell this wine, perfectly ripe cabernet sauvignon with currants, tobacco and fresh mint. Orange blossoms too. This amazing nose is so complex. Medium- to full-bodied, this has has perfectly integrated tannins that you don't feel but know are there, elevating the wine to another level. It's very drinkable because of its stellar balance, yet the tannic tension gives it energy and seamless texture. A benchmark Latour that reminds me of the 1982 in many ways. Drink or hold.
100 Points | Jeb Dunnuck
Retasting the 2016 Château Latour next to both the 2010 and 2022 had me feeling like a kid in a candy store. Needing lots of air to show at its best, its dense purple hue is followed by quintessential Latour notes of smoky blackcurrants, scorched earth, graphite, and lead pencil shavings. This carries to a medium to full-bodied Pauillac that has lively acids, a pure, seamless, layered mouthfeel, building yet perfectly ripe tannins, and that rare Latour mix of power, austerity, and elegance that makes this château so compelling. Pulled from just 36% of the total production, the 2016 is 92.9% Cabernet Sauvignon and 7.1% Merlot hitting 13.5 alcohol with an IPT of 83. It's primarily academic at this stage, but it's starting to round the corner and clearly, with its level of fruit and overall balance, offers pleasure. I think it needs another 5-7 years to hit the early stages of its prime drinking window and will have 75-100 years of overall longevity.
100 Points | The Wine Cellar Insider, Jeff Leve
With a deep, dark hue, you already note the tobacco, cigar box, wet earth, cassis, forest floor and blackberry characteristics with little effort, That\'s just the perfume. On the palate you find volume, intensity, purity, complexity, freshness and silky, salty tannins. The wine fills your mouth with a perfect combination of acidity and fruit. The mineral driven, oceanic sensation that accompanies the fruit is just great, staying with you as all that ripe, red-fruit builds and expands. Elegant, powerful and refined, this will age for 4-5-6 decades or longer. The wine was produced from blending 92.9% Cabernet Sauvignon and 7.1% Merlot. 100
100 Points | Falstaff
Deep dark ruby colour, opaque core with subtle rim. On the nose you detect blackberry, liquorice, black cherry, a touch of ripe plum, savoury oak and a hint of violet. Intense blackberry fruit on the palate, full of energy, taut and with perfect tannins. It seems monolithic and cool at first, but has balanced sweetness, great charm and very long on the palate. A perfect Cabernet wine that seems built for eternity.
96+ Points | Wine Advocate, William Kelley
On paper, the combination of this estate and this vintage should be a match made in heaven, and the 2016 Latour has already received resounding acclaim among the wine trade and commentariat. The result in the glass, however, didn't quite meet my lofty expectations, offering up aromas of cassis and blackberries mingled with cigar ash, pencil shavings and saddle leather, followed by a medium to full-bodied, rich and layered palate that's undeniably concentrated and muscular but also somewhat austerely structured, with firm tannins that assert themselves on the somewhat carnal finish. For sheer intensity of flavor, the 2016 is certainly impressive, but it appears to be missing the purity and precision that one might expect for a first growth in a great 21st-century vintage. Perhaps the wine's somewhat wild, rustic characteristics will integrate more seamlessly as more bottle bouquet develops, but my immediate reaction to tasting it was to purchase two more cases of the superb 2016 Forts de Latour.
*Prices are accurate as of the blog publication date and may be subject to change.