Les Forts de Latour is the “second wine” of Château Latour and takes its name from an historic plot in the “Enclos” – 120 acres of vines that surround the Château and overlook the Île de Patiras in the Gironde estuary. Les Forts was first released under that name in 1966.

The grapes for Les Forts come from the edge of the Enclos and further afield in Pauillac. More Merlot goes into Les Forts than into Latour’s “Grand Vin”.

The proportion of oak barrels used to age Les Forts is typically 50-60% of the finished wine; for the Grand Vin the entire production is put into new barrels. Les Forts is therefore lighter and ages quicker than the Grand Vin.

Two nice examples have been spotted in Mayfair recently.

The Merlot grapes for the 1995 Les Forts caught some rain when they were harvested in mid-September (after a very dry summer) but no dilution is apparent. This was the first really good Bordeaux vintage since 1990.

There was more rain in 1997 than in 1995. The Les Forts ’97 has less depth than the ’95. But, like other 1997 red Bordeaux wines that I’ve had in recent times, it has lasted better and longer than might have been expected.

My quizzical expression is because the photographer asked if we were drinking Les Forts de Latour for lunch.

I’m sure you know what the response was… 👎

Summer 1970 in the Bordeaux wine growing areas was just about perfect. The warm and sunny weather enabled the grapes to ripen in ideal conditions.

Château Latour picked its grapes from 28th September to 17th October. The resulting wine was uncompromisingly tannic. In its early days it was a wine that was chewed rather than drunk.

The 1970 vintage of Latour was released ex-château at 40,000 francs per tonneau – the traditional unit of pricing and of sale in Bordeaux, with one tonneau equivalent to four 225-litre barriques, or 1,200 bottles in total.

This equates to about £2.62 per bottle, which would be about £32 today…

Latour is arguably the best wine of the 1970 Bordeaux vintage.

There were other very good wines from Bordeaux that year (Mouton Rothschild, Haut-Brion and Petrus, for example) but most of them have not endured as long and well as the Latour ’70… 🍷

What does King Charles III and Château Mouton Rothschild have in common with Picasso, Dali, and Warhol…? 

An Art Deco label was commissioned from the poster artist Carlu for the 1924 Mouton Rothschild label.

To commemorate the end of the war, 1945 was the second vintage of Mouton to feature a bespoke label.

Every vintage since 1945, Mouton has enlisted an artist to design a new label.

To mark the centenary of the Entente Cordiale (“Cordial Agreement”) – a series of agreements signed on 8th April 1904 between the UK and the France – the then Prince of Wales was asked to contribute a work for the 2004 Mouton label.

Prince Charles’ watercolour shows a French landscape and is signed “To celebrate the 100th Anniversary of the Entente Cordiale – Charles, 2004”.

In October 2021, Prince Charles revealed that his 1969 Aston Martin DB6 Volante had been converted to run on bioethanol made from surplus English wine and cheese – but not, apparently, red wine from Château Mouton Rothschild… 🍷⛽️

A “second wine” has been made at Château Margaux since the 18th century, though Pavillon Rouge du Château Margaux was not named as such until 1908.

Production of Margaux’s second wine halted in the 1930s. It was not made again until the arrival  in 1977 of the chateau’s new owner André Mentzelopoulos. To improve the quality of the “first wine” or “grand vin”, more Pavillon Rouge was made.

Nowadays, about ⅓ of Château Margaux’s grapes go into the grand vin; ⅓ into Pavillon Rouge; and ⅙ each into the third wine (Margaux du Château Margaux) and an anonymous fourth wine, sold since 2009 in bulk to Bordeaux wine merchants.

(Are you keeping up? Good.)

Four excellent examples of Pavillon Rouge came in and out of our Mayfair office recently.

From the top, the 1988 has smoothed out over the years and is now probably in its prime.

1992? Well, it rained a lot in the spring and then during the September-October harvest… A light vintage of Pavillon Rouge that can still be enjoyable.

The 1995 Pavillon Rouge is one of the best made in the late 20th century. A well looked after example like this one is still going strong.

Margaux du Château Margaux was introduced for the 1997 vintage, using grapes and/or tanks and barrels that were considered unworthy of the first wine or second wine.

In my recent experience, Bordeaux red wine of this vintage has lasted much better than was widely expected. The 1997 Pavillon Rouge benefited from the more rigorous selection and has endured well.

“How to spot counterfeit fine wines” by Stuart George – Founder & MD of Arden Fine Wines – has just been published in the Spring 2023 issue of Family Office Magazine.

Family Office Magazine is the premier gateway to the Family Office and UHNWI International Community.

It is the most prominent publication in this sector and is an authority on Family Office news and events.

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The Chêne Bleu (“Blue Tree”) estate, near Mont Ventoux in Provence, is overseen by my good friend Nicole Rolet.

The splendid wine portfolio includes the two reds Abélard (mainly Grenache) and Héloïse (mainly Syrah), named after the Medieval power couple whose illicit romance ultimately condemned them to forced separation and tragedy.

Astralabeis the “teenager” (or illegitimate offspring 🤔?) of Chêne Bleu’s family of reds. It’s a Grenache-Syrah blend, named after the son of Héloïse and Abélard. The 2018 is the current vintage.

(I had a bottle of the 2016 recently and it was excellent. Even though it’s ostensibly a relatively modest Ventoux red wine, Astralabe is a wine that benefits from a few years’ ageing.)

We also have available some 1.5-litre magnums of Abélard 2010 and 2011 and 3-litre jeroboams of Héloïse 2011.

Perfect for sharing with a couple of like-minded friends (as I did)…

From my friend Vic Mills:

“Hi Stuart,

Greetings from a sunny Thames Valley and Project Front Foot.

A busy quarter for the project culminated in our recent four-day hack around Western Europe delivering kit to refugee cricketers, clubs and communities in Germany and France. 1400 miles over four days. A big ask, even by our standards. Not too much time to rest and regroup, either, as we start all over again with an early summer kit appeal. As ever, do feel free to forward the newsletter to likely interested parties. Hope this finds you well.

Best wishes

Vic”

There were a lot of distractions from winemaking in 1968: the Prague Spring; the May strikes and protests in France; and the civil rights movement, opposition to the Vietnam War, and assassinations of Martin Luther King and Robert Kennedy in the USA.

The 1968 Winter Olympics were held in Grenoble, France, in February and were largely trouble-free – unlike the 1968 Mexico City Olympics in October.

The weather in late Winter / early Spring in Bordeaux in 1968 was not dissimilar to winter 2023 in London: mild, wet, and sometimes very cold… Hardly conducive to growing grapes!

It snowed in Bordeaux on 6th April. But the second half of April was much nicer and the grapevines grew quickly.

Rain and mist in early June and August slowed down the vines’ progress.

And it was still raining during the harvest in late September and early October…

It might have ended up as wretched as 1965 or 1963 but by 1968 a severer selection of grapes was done by the more conscientious Bordeaux estates and better wines were made.

The ’68 clarets were fruity and charming (like 1997 in my time, perhaps).

Château Latour made arguably the best wine of this unloved vintage.

It’s not at the level of 1961, 1966, 1970, 1975, 1982 (or even 1899) – but always worth a look…