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Latour release: 2007 out at market price
Latour has released the next tranche of its ex-cellar offerings, this time the 2007 vintage of the grand vin – with no premium.
S ince 2013, the Pauillac first growth has released several tranches of back vintages for both its grand vin and second wines, in line with its post en primeur withdrawal to only release its wines when it considers them ‘ready’.
This spring has already seen the release of the 2000 grand vin and the 2009 Forts de Latour. In line with other releases, they carried a premium of 12.5% and 20.9% respectively on the market prices of the same wines that had already-released en primeur.
Around 3,000 cases of the 2007 was released this morning (20 September) for €355 per bottle, which means it is being offered by merchants for £4,100 per case – exactly the same level as that already available on the market.
The 2007 was a tricky vintage and the wine quality extremely variable across Bordeaux. For Latour it is the lowest-scoring wine of the 2000s and although it is not on the same level as other ‘off-vintages’ such as the ’01 or ’04, the vintage has been somewhat unfairly maligned considering Neal Martin gave it 92-points this August.
“A fine Latour from an underrated vintage,” that was entering its “drinking plateau,” he said of it, echoing Robert Parker’s own initial assessment where he too gave it 92+ points and said it was “undoubtedly one of the longest lived wines of the vintage.”
Latour’s releases have proved to be hit and miss affairs over the years. The first releases were criticised for their high premiums. The tranches of 1996, 2001 and 2002 released in 2014 were notable for their significantly lower ex-cellar prices.
This continued with the 2003 released in March 2015, a tranche finally hailed as “punchy” by merchants.
As noted above the premiums returned for the 2000 release yet now have gone again. It seems likely that the château, probably quite sensibly, decided it could not hope to ask for even a slight premium for a vintage so universally misunderstood.