🏰 Château Latour 1966 is a legendary and classic old-style Bordeaux from an outstanding vintage, widely considered one of the best Left Bank wines of its year. The 1966 growing season in Bordeaux, after a challenging start with heavy rainfall, was redeemed by a hot August and near-perfect harvest conditions, yielding wines of classic, graceful, and high-quality character. This wine required decades to become drinkable and is often hailed as one of Latour's great, forgotten legends, comparable in quality to the iconic 1959 and 1961 vintages. Notably, 1966 was also the debut vintage for Les Forts de Latour, the estate's second wine. 【A legendary, classic old-style Bordeaux from a highly regarded vintage】 This nearly 60-year-old wine still presents a vivid ruby color with plenty of depth. The palate reveals profound tertiary characters of white truffle, leather, soy, and brambled blackberry fruits, interwoven with fresh mint and a slow, steady lift. The bouquet is archetypical Latour, with notes of black fruits, cassis jam, charcoal, and damp earth. It is full-bodied, with fine tannins and abundant sweet plum flavors, leading to a long, persistent finish. Some describe it as masculine and initially aloof, then revealing gorgeous tobacco and pencil shaving notes. It is powerful, vigorous, immensely impressive, and concentrated, with cedar, sweet leather, prunes, and roasted walnuts. 🍴 Château Latour 1966 demands robust and spicy dishes that can stand up to its complex profile. Excellent pairings include beef dishes such as steak with pepper sauce or a juicy roast beef, game like roast venison or duck, and mature cheeses such as Cheddar, Roquefort, or Gouda. It also complements duck breast fillet and can even be enjoyed with dark chocolate with a high cocoa content. 🥂 This iconic wine is perfect for a truly momentous occasion, a grand celebration, or a gathering of serious collectors. It has reached its plateau of peak maturity and is expected to remain there for another 10-20 years. Serving Advice: This 1966 Château Latour is a magnificent, nearly 60-year-old wine that demands careful handling. Use a two-pronged Ah-So opener or a Durand corkscrew to extract the potentially fragile cork, as old corks can be very brittle. Decant gently to separate any sediment that has accumulated over the decades, but do so only an hour or two before serving. Very old wines can be delicate and lose their aromatics with too much air exposure. Serve at a cool cellar temperature, around 16-18°C (60-64°F), in large Bordeaux glasses to allow its complex and evolved bouquet to unfurl gracefully.