Michel Bettane and Thierry Desseauve: Tasted at the château. There will be less Merlot in the grand vin that at Lafite or Mouton, which explains in part the difference in texture: the minerality proper to the terroir presents itself in a more naked manner than it does in its peers. Its perfection of flavor and structure will therefore be more geometric than musical, the wine more drawn than painted. Dense, pure, and vinified without any compromises, it still needs the nourishment of its fine lees and new wood to achieve its full stature. 18.5/19

Michael Schuster: Dense and ripe to smell: fresh, mineral-infused, ripe blackberry and blackcurrant; long, rich, ripe, graceful wine with superbly fine tannin and a lovely sapid tenacity of flavor: sweet fruit, Pauillac spice, Latour gravel, and a long, resonant aftertaste. A Latour of great poise and elegance, finesse, and completeness, rather than one of absolute power. Engerer’s style of Latour is one that is more polished, less burly, but no less complete than the best of the past— more Château Latour Haute Couture. 2018–30+. 18+