Michael Schuster: Dense, backward nose-fresh, ripe Cabernet Sauvignon fruit; beautifully balanced full-bodied wine, firm and with very refined tannins; deep, long, even, sonorous, with hallmark Latour flavours of freshly ripe fruit plus clear gravelly terroir aromas; great mid-palate length, mouth-searching intensity in an impressively understated manner. Effortless, aristocratic grandeur. This is great Pauillac. (One week's post-fermentation maceration, as opposed to Mouton’s three weeks!) 18.5/19

Michel Bettane and Thierry Desseauve: A magical, unprecedented wine that is sure to become a classic more quickly than the 1945, 1961, or even the 1982. Its full, naturally velvety texture is the finest we have seen from Pauillac in the past 30 years. The Cabernets, for all their high alcohol content (approaching 14%), have a freshness and aromatic sleekness unlike anything we have seen for more than a century. By far and away the finest Bordeaux at this stage in its development. Pauillac’s second wine. Forts de Latour, although not as uniquely harmonious as the Grand Vin, has got off to an astonishingly vinous start, while the third wine is already highly accomplished and blessed with classy tannins. 20