Big tannins and impressive fruits are the hallmarks of this impressive wine. It is also subtle, not showing all its flavors at once, hiding beneath tannins and structure. For this fruity vintage, it shows a strong sense of direct, solid structure, only allowing the strong black plum and berry flavors to come through slowly. It is for the long haul, so don’t drink before 2022, even better later. *Cellar Selection* (RV)

This has a gorgeous core of steeped plum, boysenberry and black currant coulis flavors, backed by a prominent graphite note that drives through the lengthy finish, where extra hints of anise and sweet tobacco flitter in the background. Regal. Best from 2018 through 2035. (JM)

The 2011 Château Latour is an absolute classic in the making. The wine is a blend of just under eighty-five percent cabernet sauvignon, fifteen percent merlot and a soupçon of petit verdot this year and tips the scales at a very cool and “old school” 13.1 percent alcohol. The bouquet is deep, brooding and classically reserved mélange of cassis, dark berries, coffee bean, gravelly soil tones, cigar smoke, a nice touch of youthful tobacco leaf and a very discreet base of nutty new oak. On the palate the wine is deep, full-bodied and very pure, with a rock solid core of fruit, very firm structure, plenty of chewy, but seamlessly-integrated tannins and a very long, powerful, soil-driven finish. A great effort in 2011, this is the finest wine to be found on the Left Bank in this vintage. It will be a timeless and utterly traditional vintage of Latour. (JG) 95+