The 1989 vintage of Château Latour was not considered a great year for this superb property, which was purported to have started a mini-slump after the release of the brilliant 1982 vintage at the estate. However, though I did not buy this wine on release (believing the critics of the time and their assessment of its relative inferiority), on the couple of occasions where I have been lucky enough to drink it again in recent times, it has been clear that this wine was underrated at the outset and really is an excellent vintage of Latour. The most recent bottle was getting close to full bloom, but not quite there yet, offering up a deep and complex bouquet of cassis, sweet dark berries, cigar ash, Latour’s classic gravelly, dark soil signature, cedary oak and a smoky topnote. On the palate the wine is pure, full-bodied and plenty deep at the core, with firm, well-integrated tannins, excellent mineral drive, very good acids for the vintage and a very long, balanced and complex finish. This is getting close to really drinking well as it closes in on its thirtieth birthday, but it is an old school Latour and will still be an even better drink at age forty than it is today.

This is so decadent and exciting on the nose with very ripe fruit tobacco meat and cedar. Full-bodied offering amazing raspberry fruit in the core of the palate. Ultrapolished velvety tannins wonderfully coat every inch of your palate. This will age for years ahead but it's so lovely now. Much better than many people think.-'89/'99 Bordeaux blind retrospective (2009). Drink now. 17000 cases made. -JS

The 1989 Latour has an archetypal nose for the estate with black fruit, gravel and graphite notes, touches of pencil box developing with aeration, determined to put distance between itself and the Mouton-Rothschild alongside. The palate is medium-bodied and cohesive with a gentle grip. It is smooth in texture and not a complex Latour, yet it exhibits satisfying depth and feels like it could improve with continued bottle age. That said, to repeat my assertion in my last note, this quality level would not be accepted under the current regime. Tasted at the 1989 Bordeaux dinner at 67 Pall Mall. -- Neal Martin