FLOAT 100 · Wine · No. 27
Chateau Latour 2009
Picked in splendid sunshine after a summer the estate says was even sunnier than 2005, the 2009 Latour carried the highest tannin level ever measured at the estate, drew a perfect score and a prophecy that it would outlive our children's children, and is still being released from the chateau's own cellar fifteen years later.
- Maker
- Chateau Latour
- By price in wine
- 38 of 100
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Create a free account- Producer
- Chateau Latour, Pauillac, Bordeaux
- Classification
- First Growth (Premier Grand Cru Classe) in the 1855 Bordeaux Classification
- Owner
- Francois Pinault, through his holding company Groupe Artemis, since 1993
- Run by
- Frederic Engerer, who took over management of the estate in 1995
- Blend
- 91.3% Cabernet Sauvignon, 8.7% Merlot
- Harvest
- September 23 to October 10, 2009
- Alcohol
- Reported as 13.7%, and elsewhere as 'just under 14%'
- Production
- Roughly 8,000 cases, smaller than in most recent vintages
- Robert Parker
- 98-100 from barrel, then 100 points in bottle
- Format
- 750 ml bottle
A tower on the Gironde
Chateau Latour takes its name from a fortified tower. The site has been occupied since at least 1331, when a tower at Saint-Lambert was built by Gaucelme de Castillon, and a garrison fort stood 300 meters from the estuary to guard against attack during the Hundred Years' War. The tower was in English hands until the Battle of Castillon in 1453, when the forces of the King of France destroyed it. The round tower that appears on the label today was built in the 1620s and was actually designed as a pigeon roost.
Vines have grown there since the 14th century. In the 18th century Latour passed into the Segur family, which at one point also held Lafite, Mouton and Calon-Segur. By the start of that century its reputation was established in export markets such as England, alongside Lafite, Margaux and Pontac, and in 1787 Thomas Jefferson, then the American minister to France, listed it among the vineyards of first quality. In the 1855 Classification it was one of four wines named First Growths. The present chateau building was completed in 1864.
The heart of the estate is a 47-hectare block beside the chateau called l'Enclos. Only grapes from the Enclos go into the grand vin, a rule that dates to the 1960s, when the estate decided the first wine would come exclusively from the vineyards shown on a 1759 plan of the property. The Enclos sits on deep gravel over clay, and some of its oldest Cabernet Sauvignon vines, in a small parcel called Le Sarmentier, are more than 100 years old.
The magnate and his director
In 1963 the Segur descendants sold three-quarters of the shares to the British Pearson Group. The new managers, Henri Martin and Jean-Paul Gardere, made Latour the first of the first growths to replace its old oak fermenting vats with temperature-controlled stainless steel. In 1989 the drinks group Allied Lyons took control, and in 1993 the estate returned to French ownership when the businessman Francois Pinault bought it. Sources disagree on what he paid.
Pinault handed day-to-day direction to Frederic Engerer, who had studied at the same university as Pinault's son. Engerer took over management in 1995. He later recalled selling his first futures campaign, the 1994 vintage, at 28 euros a bottle. By the 2009 vintage the first release was 500 euros.
Under Engerer the estate moved toward organic farming. Horses began working select parcels in 2008, the entire Enclos was farmed organically from the 2015 vintage, and in 2019 the whole vineyard was certified organic. In December 2008, months before the 2009 growing season began, news reports said the estate was being offered for sale. It was not sold.
A summer sunnier than 2005
The estate's own account of 2009 describes a relatively wet spring and then an exceptionally hot, dry summer, sunnier even than 2005. Growth was slow at first, but from May onward monthly temperatures ran well above normal and the vines caught up. A few storms in July did not refill the soil, and the deficit deepened through August and September; after veraison the vines were under significant stress, and a very dry first half of September concentrated berries that were already small.
Rain on September 19 and 20 helped refine the tannins. Picking began on Wednesday, September 23, and ran until October 10 in what the estate called splendid sunshine and perfectly healthy conditions. The chateau rates the year 'exceptional' and describes wines of great concentration and 'a previously unseen quantity of tannins.'
The final blend was unusually heavy in Cabernet Sauvignon: 91.3%, with 8.7% Merlot. Robert Parker wrote that the wine had 'the highest level of tannin ever measured at the estate' and compared it to the 2003, 'only more structured and potentially more massive and long lived.' Reported alcohol varies by note, from 13.7% to 'just under 14%.' Production was small: roughly 8,000 cases, against close to 11,000 the following year.
The children's children's children's elixir
Parker scored the barrel sample 98 to 100 points and called it 'a monumental wine from a monumental vintage in the Medoc, this is our children's children's children's elixir.' In bottle he gave it 100 points, calling it 'one of the most remarkable young wines I have ever tasted.' Asked whether it would last a hundred years, he answered his own question: 'No doubt about it.'
Other critics followed. James Suckling gave it 100 points in February 2012 and wrote, 'It is the famous 1959 all over again.' Lisa Perrotti-Brown scored it 100 in 2019 and again in March 2024, when she called it 'flat-out delicious right now.' Neal Martin, tasting it blind against its peers in January 2013, gave 97 and found it 'showier than its peers'; in December 2019 he scored it 98. In a trade poll the 2009 Latour was voted wine of the vintage, ahead of Lafite and Margaux.
The last futures, and the long release
The 2009 Bordeaux campaign in June 2010 was the most expensive young vintage ever sold from the region. Latour's first tranche left the chateau at 500 euros a bottle, about $612, the same as Haut-Brion and above Lafite, Margaux and Mouton at 450 euros. Within days a reader told a Wine Spectator columnist he had been offered the 2009 Latour at $1,750 a bottle. A 2024 trade report gives the wine's original release price as 770 euros; the two figures likely describe different tranches or price levels, and the sources do not reconcile them.
The 2009 was nearly the last Latour sold that way. In April 2012 the estate told its clients that the 2011 would be its final futures offering. From the 2012 vintage on, Latour would hold its wine until it judged it ready to drink, typically 10 to 12 years for the grand vin. Engerer said the estate was concerned its wines were drunk too young, and that provenance, a problem accelerated by the Asian market, drove the decision. 'If you buy and open a '95 Latour right now and take that risk, and it doesn't show well because of how it was stored, you blame it on us in the end,' he said.
That policy brought the 2009 back to market twice from the chateau's own cellar. On September 8, 2020, the estate released a small quantity at 860 euros. In September 2024 it released a final 1,000 cases, 12,000 bottles, at 840 euros a bottle ex-chateau and 910 euros through the Bordeaux trade, which one market analysis put about 16% above the prevailing market price. A London merchant called it 'the last opportunity to acquire the wine with perfect provenance.' In October 2026 a US retailer listed a bottle at $1,400.
The numbers
- Vineyard
- 78 hectares under vine on a 92-hectare property; the grand vin comes only from the 47-hectare Enclos
- Production
- Roughly 8,000 cases (about 96,000 bottles)
- Blend
- 91.3% Cabernet Sauvignon, 8.7% Merlot
- Robert Parker, The Wine Advocate
- 100 (barrel 98-100)
- James Suckling
- 100 (February 2012)
- Lisa Perrotti-Brown
- 100 (2019 and 2024)
- Neal Martin
- 97 (2013), 98 (2019)
Timeline
A tower at Saint-Lambert is built on the site by Gaucelme de Castillon.
The English-held tower is destroyed after the Battle of Castillon.
Thomas Jefferson ranks Latour among Bordeaux's vineyards of first quality.
Latour is named one of four First Growths in the Bordeaux Classification.
The present chateau building is completed.
The Segur descendants sell three-quarters of the shares to the Pearson Group.
Francois Pinault buys the estate, returning it to French ownership.
Frederic Engerer takes over management of the estate.
News reports say the estate is being offered for sale; it is not sold.
Harvest of the 2009 begins; picking runs until October 10.
The first tranche of 2009 Latour is released at 500 euros a bottle.
Robert Parker scores the bottled 2009 at 100 points.
Latour announces that the 2011 will be its last vintage sold as futures.
The entire Latour vineyard is certified organic.
The chateau re-releases a small quantity of the 2009 from its cellar at 860 euros.
Lisa Perrotti-Brown scores the 2009 at 100 points for a second time.
A final ex-chateau release of 12,000 bottles is offered at 840 euros a bottle.
The world in 2009
The first block of the Bitcoin blockchain is created.
Barack Obama is sworn in as the 44th President of the United States.
The H1N1 'swine flu' outbreak is declared a global pandemic.
Michael Jackson dies, setting off worldwide grief and crippling major websites.
The longest total solar eclipse of the 21st century crosses Asia and the Pacific.
Microsoft releases Windows 7, twelve days after the last Latour grapes are picked.
The Treaty of Lisbon comes into force in the European Union.
Daily price data
FLOAT reprices this wine every day from completed sales. Last updated November 12, 2026.
Price record
| Date | Price | Kind |
|---|---|---|
| Jun 2010 | $612 | Asking price, not a saleFirst-tranche release price per bottle from the chateau, before trade and retail markups (500 euros). |
| Jun 2010 | $1,750 | Asking price, not a salePer-bottle offer reported by a reader to a wine columnist during the futures campaign. |
| Oct 2026 | $1,400 | Asking price, not a saleSingle 750 ml bottle listed by a US retailer. |
This is an asking price, not a sale. It is what a seller wanted on the date shown. Asking prices often sit above what buyers pay, but an ask is not a ceiling: a sale can land on either side of it. It is not a value.
By reference price, Chateau Latour 2009 is number 38 of 100 in the wine entries of the FLOAT 100. 12 of those 100 rest on a realized sale; the rest carry an asking price or a guide value, and each page says which. Rank within the FLOAT 100 itself (27 here) is editorial: how much an object defines its field, not price alone.
Did you know
- The tower on Latour's label was built in the 1620s as a pigeon roost, not a fortress.
- Robert Parker said the 2009 had the highest tannin level ever measured at the estate.
- Latour was the first of the first growths to replace its oak fermenting vats with temperature-controlled stainless steel, after the Pearson Group bought in in 1963.
- The 2009 was one of the last Latour vintages sold as futures; from 2012 the estate began holding its grand vin for roughly a decade before release.
- The chateau released the 2009 from its own cellar in 2020 and again in 2024, when the final 12,000 bottles were offered.
- Engerer's first futures campaign, the 1994 vintage, sold at 28 euros a bottle; the 2009 opened at 500.
- Horses work select parcels of the Enclos vineyard, a practice the estate began in 2008.
How this page is made
- The figure
- One reference price, shown with its own kind. FLOAT does not average it with anything or adjust it for time.
- Realized or not
- A realized price is a completed sale. An asking price, an estimate and a price-guide value are not sales, and are labeled as such wherever they appear.
- The story
- Researched from published records and checked fact by fact. Updated Oct 1, 2026.
- Archive
- Oct 5, 2026