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1 bottle per lot
Details
Christie's has had a long association with Chateau Latour. Indeed, the first recorded sale by Mr. James Christie was in London on August 1st, 1792, when a "hamper containing 50 quart bottles of the growths of Latour and vintage 1785" was sold.
Of course, even in those days the wines had a great reputation, which extended to America. My predecessor, Michael Broadbent M.W., when researching Thomas Jefferson's interest in wine, found that when Jefferson was the American envoy in Paris he visited Bordeaux in May 1787 and reported in his letters that there were four first growths of which Monsieur Miromesnil's "La Tour de Segur" (Latour) was one. Jefferson had visited the top Chbteaux ordering wine on the spot and insisting on it being Chbteau bottled, with bottles marked to ensure that he was getting what he had tasted!
More recently, in 1977, Christie's mounted "An important Sale of Garand Vin de Chbteau Latour" in London with our catalogue listing eighty-two vintages, back to 1863. The star lot was an Imperial of 1900 which sold for a very high price at the time of #2,800.
We are again privileged to mount a sale of wines direct from the Chbteau, this time in New York, where fifty wonderful vintages are being offered, including a magnum of the great 1900, and a jeroboam of the amazing 1961.
But what of the wine? Renowned for its longevity and for making excellent wine in difficult or lesser vintages, the fame of Latour is well respected amongst all wine lovers, with many vintages standing out as some of the greatest of all wines. As I write this introduction, I still have vividly in my mind the 1928 and 1961 vintages which I had the honour of tasting with some collectors the previous day. The 1928 was still vibrant, round and perfectly harmonious, with rich complexity, a triumph of balance and class. The 1961 deep red, almost still showing hints of purple, very youthful - solid, concentrated and wonderfully full of fascinating flavours - a wine that it seems will last forever! Both vintages are a testament to this greatest of wines. And yet I also have an equally vivid memory of drinking the 1971 - not an auspicious vintage - with the newly appointed president of Latour, Frederick Engerer, a year ago, and being amazed how this wine is now just becoming an extraordinarily good wine. Again. a testament to this the most consistent and dependable of wines.
One could pontificate at length about why Latour is so dependable: the soil aspect, the investment in technology, combined with respect for tradition, the people through whose hands the estate has been passed so lovingly through the years - the little details that make up the whole. But at the end of the day, it is the breeding which shines through every vintage, making this a wine of intensity without weight, and of supreme balance.
Unfortunately, when Thomas Jefferson wrote to his agent in Bordeaux when he returned home in 1791 to enquire of the Count Miromesnil, requesting " twenty dozen bottles of your best wine for drinking now, packed and marked 'GW' at the vineyard", Latour could not supply either Jefferson or the President "GW" George Washington. Probably they were genuinely short of wine, or possibly they didn't understand who G.W. was?RALL WINES REMOVED FROM CHÂTEAU CELLARS AND IN PRISTINE CONDITION
Château Latour--Vintage 1863
Pauilliac, 1er cru classé
1 bottle per lot
Of course, even in those days the wines had a great reputation, which extended to America. My predecessor, Michael Broadbent M.W., when researching Thomas Jefferson's interest in wine, found that when Jefferson was the American envoy in Paris he visited Bordeaux in May 1787 and reported in his letters that there were four first growths of which Monsieur Miromesnil's "La Tour de Segur" (Latour) was one. Jefferson had visited the top Chbteaux ordering wine on the spot and insisting on it being Chbteau bottled, with bottles marked to ensure that he was getting what he had tasted!
More recently, in 1977, Christie's mounted "An important Sale of Garand Vin de Chbteau Latour" in London with our catalogue listing eighty-two vintages, back to 1863. The star lot was an Imperial of 1900 which sold for a very high price at the time of #2,800.
We are again privileged to mount a sale of wines direct from the Chbteau, this time in New York, where fifty wonderful vintages are being offered, including a magnum of the great 1900, and a jeroboam of the amazing 1961.
But what of the wine? Renowned for its longevity and for making excellent wine in difficult or lesser vintages, the fame of Latour is well respected amongst all wine lovers, with many vintages standing out as some of the greatest of all wines. As I write this introduction, I still have vividly in my mind the 1928 and 1961 vintages which I had the honour of tasting with some collectors the previous day. The 1928 was still vibrant, round and perfectly harmonious, with rich complexity, a triumph of balance and class. The 1961 deep red, almost still showing hints of purple, very youthful - solid, concentrated and wonderfully full of fascinating flavours - a wine that it seems will last forever! Both vintages are a testament to this greatest of wines. And yet I also have an equally vivid memory of drinking the 1971 - not an auspicious vintage - with the newly appointed president of Latour, Frederick Engerer, a year ago, and being amazed how this wine is now just becoming an extraordinarily good wine. Again. a testament to this the most consistent and dependable of wines.
One could pontificate at length about why Latour is so dependable: the soil aspect, the investment in technology, combined with respect for tradition, the people through whose hands the estate has been passed so lovingly through the years - the little details that make up the whole. But at the end of the day, it is the breeding which shines through every vintage, making this a wine of intensity without weight, and of supreme balance.
Unfortunately, when Thomas Jefferson wrote to his agent in Bordeaux when he returned home in 1791 to enquire of the Count Miromesnil, requesting " twenty dozen bottles of your best wine for drinking now, packed and marked 'GW' at the vineyard", Latour could not supply either Jefferson or the President "GW" George Washington. Probably they were genuinely short of wine, or possibly they didn't understand who G.W. was?RALL WINES REMOVED FROM CHÂTEAU CELLARS AND IN PRISTINE CONDITION
Château Latour--Vintage 1863
Pauilliac, 1er cru classé
1 bottle per lot