This morning, Château Latour released a small quantity of its top-rated vintage of 2009.  For collectors and connoisseurs, such ex-chateau release of the top vintage is the most reliable way to acquire 100 pointers.  The wine is being prepared by the chateau to leave its cellar for the first time after aging in its vaulted cellar under perfect conditions for 10 years.  You wouldn't find a better kept bottle anywhere else in the world.  For an inside view of Château Latour's cellar, here is a picture I took on my last trip.

When the 2009 vintage was first released, Robert Parker Jr called it "a monumental wine from a monumental vintage in the Médoc, this is our children's children's children's elixir".  We all love our children.  But I plan to open one of the bottles in another 5-10 years, just so I can be sure of the quality of what I will be leaving behind for the children and their children one day.  :-)

Tasting Notes:

"A blend of 91.3% Cabernet Sauvignon and 8.7% Merlot with just under 14% natural alcohol, the 2009 Latour is basically a clone of the super 2003, only more structured and potentially more massive and long lived. An elixir of momentous proportions, it boasts a dense purple color as well as an extraordinarily flamboyant bouquet of black fruits, graphite, crushed rocks, subtle oak and a notion of wet steel. It hits the palate with a thundering concoction of thick, juicy blue and black fruits, lead pencil shavings and a chalky minerality. Full-bodied, but very fresh with a finish that lasts over a minute, this is one of the most remarkable young wines I have ever tasted. Will it last one-hundred years? No doubt about it. Can it be drunk in a decade? For sure." - Robert Parker Jr., The Wine Advocate (12/22/2011, Issue 199), Ratings: 100

"The 2009 Latour has off the charts concentration in addition to the highest level of tannin ever measured at the estate. The final blend was somewhat unusual in that it consists of 91.3% Cabernet Sauvignon and 8.7% Merlot, and clocked in at 13.7% alcohol (even higher than the 2003). Possibly a 100-year wine, it boasts an inky/black/purple color as well as an extraordinary perfume of super-intense blue and black fruits, graphite, and a liqueur of rocks-like minerality. Enormously full-bodied yet at the same time incredibly fresh, vibrant, and precise, it coats the mouth, and builds incrementally to skyscraper-like texture, and a whopping finish that lasts over a minute. This remarkable wine reveals a certain accessibility already, yet one senses that it will be even richer, more nuanced, and fuller by the time it is bottled in mid-2011. A monumental wine from a monumental vintage in the Medoc, this is our children's children's children's elixir. (Tasted once.)

There is no doubting that Director Frederic Engerer and owner Francois Pinault are thrilled with what they have accomplished at Latour. These three wines are hugely different in price, but all are extraordinary." - Robert Parker Jr., The Wine Advocate (6/29/2006, Issue 165), Ratings: 98-100