The 1989 Latour was really quite overlooked at the time of its release, with much of the wine world’s focus absorbed by the 1990 vintage from this great property. However, at the Hart-Davis-Hart tasting, the 1989 Latour was the marginally superior wine of these two vintages, and also decidedly the younger of the two. The deep, youthful and very pure nose offers up a fine blend of cassis, dark berry, a touch of mint, cigar ash, gravelly soil tones, fresh herbs and cedar. On the palate the wine is deep, full-bodied and rock solid at the core, with nascent complexity, great focus and transparency, tangy acids (notably higher than the more velvety 1990 version) and great length and grip on the old-fashioned, chewy and ripely tannic finish. This wine is developing brilliantly and is clearly going to be the longer-lived of the ’89-’90 pair, and I would not be surprised to see the 1989 Latour open up its lead over its 1990 counterpart more profoundly as the years go by. A superb and very much under-appreciated Latour. (Drink between 2020-2100) 94+