Les Forts de Latour 2017

A mild winter, then two nights of severe frost on 27–28 April that hit 2.6 ha of the estate (mostly plots used for the third wine). Early, even flowering in sunny June conditions; a dry, moderately warm summer with cool mornings and no heat spikes; September rains complicated the end of ripening. Les Forts was picked 11 September – 4 October.

A classic, fresher year rather than a blockbuster: 2017 Left Bank wines are aromatic, precise, and sleeker than 2015/2016, with fine-grained tannin and lower flesh — in Les Forts, an airier, red-fruited expression of Pauillac. The September rains led Latour to route two grand-vin plots into Les Forts, quietly raising its pedigree.

Deep Günz gravel croupes over clay/limestone — poor, warm, free-draining Pauillac terroir.

10,000 vines/ha estate-wide; parcel-by-parcel farming and picking.

Primarily Les Forts' own dedicated parcels outside the Enclos, inland toward Château Haut-Batailley (notably plots planted from 1963 on estate land owned since 1850), plus young-vine and declassified Enclos lots. In 2017, two plots normally destined for the grand vin went into Les Forts.

Parcel-by-parcel in temperature-controlled stainless-steel vats (the cuvier holds 80 vats of 12–164 hl); malolactic in vat. 6.7% press wine in the 2017 blend.

About 18 months in barrique, roughly 50–60% new French oak (house regime for Les Forts; vintage-specific figure not published).

Les Forts represented 45.4% of the estate's 2017 production. Released ex-château (Latour left the en primeur system in 2012).

vintage-specific blend · abv 13.5%