Chateau Latour-Martillac, Rouge Cru Classe, Pessac-Leognan 2019

I loved the 2019 Château Latour-Martillac, and I under-rated it from barrel. Revealing a dense ruby/plum color as well as a gorgeous bouquet of blackcurrants, black cherry, smoked tobacco, gravely earth, and chocolate, it hits the palate with full-bodied richness, a round, layered mouthfeel, supple tannins, and one heck of a finish. It's beautifully done and will cruise for 25+ years in cold cellars. It needs plenty of air if drinking any time soon.

Sweet berry, spice, tobacco and dried rose-petal aromas. Full-bodied with beautifully integrated tannins and a creamy, polished texture. Refined and complex. One of the best young bottles ever from here. Better after 2025.

Rich ruby red colour, this is an excellent Latour Martillac that goes deep and wide, with muscular tannins that let juice run through them. A little subdued at first, it needs coaxing out of the glass as there is power here, but it builds slowly rather than shouting. Everything feels in place, with savoury fruits, cocoa bean, liquorice root and cigar box. Ready for ageing for a good few decades. 40% new oak, harvest September 19 to October 11.

The 2019 Latour-Martillac was a little perplexing from the barrel samples that I received a few months back. Now in bottle, here is the Pessac-Léognan I know, with ample blackberry, cedar, black olive and light marine scents on the nose. The palate is medium-bodied with sappy black fruit, quite fleshy but still nicely structured, and showing fine backbone on the sappy, white-pepper- and sage-tinged finish. Now this is promising.

The 2019 Latour-Martillac is quite a bit more rustic and rough around the edges than I recall from the en primeur tastings. Wild cherry, smoke, leather, licorice, tobacco and incense are all jam packed into the wine's mid-weight frame. There is plenty of richness and overall intensity, but the contours are a bit chunky. Tasted two times.

A hint of ripe sweetness to the fruit on the nose, this has good depth and some sculpted full fruit on the palate - blackcurrant and black cherries but the oak spicing is still seriously apparent and it blocks a lot of the exuberance at this stage with cloves, black pepper and dark chocolate tones. A powerful wine, big shouldered with lots of potential but a little hidden underneath tannins and oak right now.

The 2019 Latour-Martillac Rouge is a blend of 72% Cabernet Sauvignon, 20% Merlot, and 8% Petit Verdot. Deep garnet-purple in color, it shimmies out with gregarious notions of kirsch, stewed blackberries, and chocolate-covered cherries, plus wafts of pencil shavings and bay leaves. The medium to full-bodied palate is tightly knit with bright, youthful fruit and a grainy texture, finishing with a red berry lift.

Aromas of rich black fruits, burning embers and loamy soil introduce the 2019 Latour Martillac, a full-bodied, broad and ample wine with a generous core of fruit framed by succulent acids and an abundance of powdery tannins that assert themselves on the youthfully chewy finish. This is a powerful, rather extracted Pessac that's likely to remain a little burly throughout its life.