Ripe and very powerful aromas of black licorice, currants and violets. Full-bodied, dense and flavorful with lots of very new, flashy wood. Sexy and gorgeous. Round and polished tannins. Superb wine for the vintage.

The 2017 Latour, which was bottled mid-June and mid-July, has a tightly wound bouquet with black fruit, pencil lead and a strong marine influence. This is utterly compelling. The palate is medium-bodied with fine tannins, what you may call an "athletic" Latour. There is no "fat" hear, just pure black mineral-infused fruit with quintessential Pauillac notes of graphite and a touch of cedar on the persistent finish. Superb.

Latour is an utterly fascinating wine to taste nowadays, as there is little doubt that it is undergoing a profound change - almost certainly due to biodynamics. The 2017 is less monumental and yet no less impactful than previous vintages, and is very much in the frame of recent Latours. They are bravely following where they believe it should be, rather than where the market expects it to be. It opens with hugely vibrant spice followed by powerful, richly concentrated cassis and autumnal fruits that steal up on you. This beautiful wine has great persistency and precision, with real bearing and good Pauillac structure. Those tannins come rushing in until, by the end, you feel their insisting power. The levels of precision are astonishing - the team blind-tasted the berries for three weeks before harvest to track maturity and decide picking dates. There are touches of 100-year-old Petit Verdot in here.