FLOAT 100 · Wine · No. 67
Chateau Latour 2010
In a drought year that stressed vines across the Medoc, Latour kept barely a third of its crop for the grand vin and made a wine its own director thought could hardly be bettered.
- Maker
- Chateau Latour
- By price in wine
- 44 of 100
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Create a free account- Producer
- Chateau Latour, Pauillac, Bordeaux
- Classification
- First growth in the 1855 Bordeaux classification
- Vineyard
- 78 hectares in all; the grand vin comes from the 47-hectare Enclos beside the Gironde
- Blend
- 90.5% Cabernet Sauvignon, about 9.5% Merlot, a trace of Petit Verdot
- Share of the crop
- 36% of the estate's total production went into the 2010 grand vin
- Alcohol
- 14.4% natural alcohol
- Harvest
- Merlot from September 20, 2010; Cabernet Sauvignon from October 4
- En primeur price
- 780 euros a bottle ex-negociant, released July 1, 2011
- Critic scores
- 100 points from Robert Parker, Neal Martin, James Suckling, Jeb Dunnuck and Vinous
- Owner
- Francois Pinault's Groupe Artemis, since 1993
A tower on the estuary
Chateau Latour takes its name from a fortified tower. The oldest document that mentions the place, from 1331, is a license granted to Gaucelme de Castillon to build a fortified tower in the parish of Saint Maubert. In 1378 it appears in Jean Froissart's Chronicles: during the Hundred Years War the tower guarded the Gironde estuary, held by Breton soldiers for the King of France, until an Anglo-Gascon army took it after a three-day siege.
The estate's wine story begins with the Segur family. Alexandre de Segur acquired Latour through marriage and inheritance, bought Chateau Lafite just before his death in 1716, and his son Nicolas-Alexandre, president of the Parliament of Bordeaux, was dubbed the 'Prince of the Vines' by Louis XV. Prices tell the rest: according to the estate's own records, a barrel of Latour was worth four to five times an ordinary Bordeaux in 1714, thirteen times by 1729 and twenty times by 1767. The vineyard grew from 38 hectares in 1759 to 47 hectares by 1794.
Latour was ranked a first growth in the 1855 Bordeaux classification. The same family line owned it from 1670 until 1963, when British interests in the Pearson group bought it. Allied Lyons paid 110 million pounds in 1989, and in 1993 Francois Pinault bought the estate for 86 million pounds, folding it into his holding company, Groupe Artemis.
The Enclos
The estate covers 78 hectares, but the grand vin comes only from the Enclos, a 47-hectare block of old vines around the chateau, about 300 meters from the Gironde. Most of the vines sit on gravel hilltops 12 to 16 meters above the estuary. The heart of the Enclos is clayey gravel, 50 to 80 percent gravel depending on the height of the plot, laid down on marly sediment; the edges are younger, sandier gravel better suited to Merlot.
The estate says the grand vin is made only from old vines in the Enclos, averaging about 60 years, from plots with names like Gravettes, Sarmentier and Piece de Chateau, and that Cabernet Sauvignon makes up more than 90 percent of the blend. In a typical year it makes about 18,000 cases of the grand vin and about 11,000 of its second wine, Les Forts de Latour.
That subsoil mattered in 2010. The estate notes that its old vines root as deep as three meters and that layers of marly clay hold water below the gravel, keeping the vines working through droughts such as 2003 and 2010 and letting the grapes ripen for longer.
2010: a cold spring and a dry summer
The estate's own vintage record describes a mild, wet autumn in 2009 followed by a cold, dry start to 2010. Budbreak was late and did not really get going until an almost summery April. Rain and cool weather in the first half of June disrupted flowering, causing heavy flower loss and uneven berry size, and normal temperatures returned only in the last ten days of the month.
Water stress began at the end of June in some plots of the Enclos and grew through July; most vines stopped growing by the end of the month. Picking began with young-vine Merlot on September 20 and, after a pause of a few days, moved on to Cabernet Sauvignon on October 4. The estate rates 2010 an 'exceptional year.'
The result was a grand vin of 90.5 percent Cabernet Sauvignon with about 9.5 percent Merlot and a trace of Petit Verdot, at 14.4 percent natural alcohol, made from just 36 percent of the estate's total crop. Published notes record a pH of 3.6, lower than the 3.8 of the 2009. Administrator Frederic Engerer called the wine 'unlike any other made at this estate.'
A perfect score, many times over
Robert Parker gave it 100 points in 2013, describing 'a liquid skyscraper in the mouth, building layers upon layers of extravagant richness,' and predicting it would need 15 years to reach its prime and could last 50 to 100. He called the estate's 2010s its 'greatest achievements to date.'
Neal Martin also gave 100 points in February 2013, writing that it would rank alongside legends such as the 1961 and 1982. James Suckling scored it 100 the same month, Jeb Dunnuck called it a 'monumental wine' at 100 points in 2015, and Vinous scored it 100 in April 2020, calling it 'the king' of the 2010 first growths. Lisa Perrotti-Brown also gave it 100, opening her note with crème de cassis, Black Forest cake and blackberry pie.
Not every critic went to the top. Steven Spurrier had scored it 20 out of 20 from barrel in April 2011, calling it 'a monumental expression of the Latour vineyards,' while Jancis Robinson gave 19 out of 20 in 2020 and James Molesworth 99 points, predicting that its 'bedrock of graphite structure' should help it outlive other 2010s.
The last great Latour sold as futures
Latour was the last of the first growths to price its 2010 en primeur, on July 1, 2011, and it released the whole crop at once rather than in tranches. Its price of 780 euros a bottle ex-negociant was 30 percent above the 600 euros asked for the 2009 and, for the moment, the highest of the first growths, above Margaux, Mouton and Lafite at 600 euros and Haut-Brion at 660. Engerer said the 650 euros the chateau charged negociants was about 35 percent below the 2009's market price at the time.
It was nearly the end of the system for Latour. In September 2012 Engerer announced that the estate would leave the en primeur system and sell its wines only when it judged them closer to ready to drink. The first late release was the 2006, in 2018; the 2012, 2013 and 2014 followed together in 2021, and the 2016 in 2025.
Because the 2010 was sold as futures, most bottles went to market in 2011. The estate kept stock back, however, and released more from its own cellars later; one U.S. merchant listed three-bottle cases of 'Ex-Chateau 2022' stock. In October 2026 a New York merchant listed a single 750 ml bottle at $1,251.05, an asking price for future arrival, not a sale.
The numbers
- Total vineyard
- 78 ha
- Enclos (grand vin source)
- 47 ha
- Typical grand vin production
- About 18,000 cases a year
- 2010 grand vin share
- 36% of total production
- Blend
- 90.5% Cabernet Sauvignon, about 9.5% Merlot, trace Petit Verdot
- Alcohol
- 14.4%
- pH
- 3.6 (2009: 3.8)
- Robert Parker
- 100 (2013)
- Vinous
- 100 (2020)
- Jancis Robinson
- 19/20 (2020)
Timeline
Earliest record of the site: a license to build a fortified tower at Saint Maubert.
The tower appears in Froissart's Chronicles after an Anglo-Gascon army takes it.
Alexandre de Segur, owner of Latour, buys Chateau Lafite shortly before his death.
Latour is ranked a first growth in the Bordeaux classification.
After nearly three centuries in one family line, Latour is sold to British interests.
Francois Pinault buys Latour for 86 million pounds.
The 2010 harvest begins with young-vine Merlot.
Picking of Cabernet Sauvignon begins.
Steven Spurrier scores the 2010 20 out of 20 from barrel.
Latour releases the 2010 en primeur at 780 euros a bottle, the last first growth to price.
Frederic Engerer announces that Latour will leave the en primeur system.
Robert Parker, Neal Martin and James Suckling all score the 2010 100 points.
The estate's organic certification is issued; the vineyard had been farmed organically since August 2015.
Vinous scores the 2010 100 points and calls it the king of the vintage's first growths.
More 2010 stock is released from the chateau's cellars.
A New York merchant lists a bottle at $1,251.05.
The world in 2010
A magnitude 7.0 earthquake devastates Haiti near Port-au-Prince.
A magnitude 8.8 earthquake strikes Chile.
Apple releases the first iPad.
Ash from Iceland's Eyjafjallajokull volcano begins weeks of disruption to European air travel.
The Deepwater Horizon oil platform explodes in the Gulf of Mexico, killing 11 workers.
Spain wins its first World Cup, in South Africa.
Instagram launches to the public.
Daily price data
FLOAT reprices this wine every day from completed sales. Last updated November 12, 2026.
Price record
| Date | Price | Kind |
|---|---|---|
| Oct 2026 | $1,251 | Asking price, not a saleRetail asking price per 750 ml bottle at a New York merchant, offered for future arrival. Not a sale. |
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 2010 is number 44 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 (67 here) is editorial: how much an object defines its field, not price alone.
Did you know
- Only 36 percent of Latour's 2010 crop was judged good enough for the grand vin.
- The 2010 was one of the last Latour vintages sold as futures; the estate quit the en primeur system in September 2012.
- In 1767 a barrel of Latour sold for about twenty times the price of an ordinary Bordeaux, according to the estate's archives.
- Latour's tower was captured after a three-day siege during the Hundred Years War.
- Horses were brought back to plow Latour's vineyard in 2008.
- The estate replaces about 3 percent of its 900,000 vines every year, one dead or damaged vine at a time.
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 3, 2026.
- Archive
- Oct 5, 2026