1982 Château Latour, Pauillac, Bordeaux

The 1982 Latour is the most consistent of the First Growths in this auspicious vintage. Tasted from both bottle and magnum in the UK in recent months, this note comes from an ex-château magnum tasted at a private dinner in Bordeaux. It exudes class and majesty on the nose with its copious but brilliantly focused black fruit laced with cedar and graphite. To use a phrase I have written before, it is blue-blooded...regal. That comes through on a palate that has a haunting symmetry and a killer finish that is brilliantly defined and audaciously long, graphite lingering on the aftertaste. Quite simply, claret does not come better than this. Tasted at a private dinner in Bordeaux. Drink now to 2055Neil Martin, Vinous.com (April 2022)

This shows wonderful decadence with meaty, dark chocolate and ripe plums on the nose that follows through on the palate. It's full bodied, with super silky tannins that caress your palate. The fruit in the wine changes to a spicy, stony undertone. It seems to evolve all the time in the glass. This has a long life to it. But why wait? So delicious.james_suckling, jamessuckling_com (November 2010)

1982 was a great vintagerelatively warm and prolific, producing wines of richness and depth. The 1982 Latour has a medium garnet-brick color and then pow!it belts out powerful notes of star anise, dried roses, sandalwood and new leather with a core of kirsch, blackberry tart, dried mulberries and blackcurrant pastilles. Full-bodied, rich and spicy with bags of fruit and tons of savory fireworks, it finishes with epic persistence.Lisa Perrotti-Brown - 28/02/2019

Always somewhat atypical (which I suspect will be the case with the more modern day 2003), the 1982 Latour has been the most opulent, flamboyant, and precocious of the northern Medocs, especially the St.-Juliens, Pauillacs, and St.-Estephes. It hasn’t changed much over the last 10-15 years, revealing sweet tannins as well as extraordinarily decadent, even extravagant levels of fruit, glycerin, and body. It is an amazing wine, and on several occasions, I have actually picked it as a right bank Pomerol because of the lushness and succulence of the cedary, blackberry, black currant fruit. This vintage has always tasted great, even in its youth, and revealed a precociousness that one does not associate with this Chateau. However, the 1982 is still evolving at a glacial pace. The concentration remains remarkable, and the wine is a full-bodied, exuberant, rich, classic Pauillac in its aromatic and flavor profiles. It’s just juiced up (similar to an athlete on steroids) and is all the better for it. This remarkable effort will last as long as the 1982 Mouton, but it has always been more approachable and decadently fruity. Drink it now, in 20 years, and in 50 years! Don’t miss it if you are a wine lover. robert_parker - Wine Advocate - Jun-2009

A bottle brought, along with one of Mouton 1982, by a guest to a grouse dinner – on a Monday night!Absolutely stonking. Beautifully layered, complex, fully mature nose. On the palate there was more sweetness than one usually associates with Ch Latour – a vintage factor presumably – and then a light tarry character towards the end of the palate that resonates with top-quality Pauillac and Latour's usual mineral signature. Just gorgeous and complete, at the height of its powers.Drink now to 2036jancis_robinson_mw MW, JancisRobinson.com (September 2020)