Château Latour 2015 released in the UK

This week saw the release of Château Latour Premier Cru Classé, Pauillac 2015, the youngest vintage from the esteemed Bordeaux chateau which operates outside the en primeur system to release its wines with bottle ageing. 

It marks the first release of the 2015 vintage on the market, and was priced at £6,300 per case of 12 bottles.

According to a recent analysis by Liv-ex, however, there is some debate about whether the release offers good value compared to other vintages already on the market. Its analysis for example found that this rather depended on your critic of choice. “For followers of Neal Martin, a £7,000 release price might not be quite as attractive as it would be for Wine Advocate supporters. Indeed, the price would need to be nearer £5,000,” it said.

Martin – who was credited as the most influential Bordeaux En Primeur critic in 2022  by a survey of Liv-ex’s global merchant members  – gave it a score of 96 points.

Liv-ex noted that “ultimately the market will decide the success of the 2015 release”, but pointed to the 2012 vintage, which Martin gave a score of 97 points to, which is available for less than £5,000. Similarly the Latour 2014, which was was released a year ago at £4,950 per case of 12 (in bond)  hasn’t moved significantly in price since then – scoring an average of 95 points.

Les Forts de Latour, Pauillac 2017 was also released this week, priced at £1,980 per case of 12.  This, Liv-ex represented less value than the 2014 and  2015 vintages, which are available at £1,740 and £1,790 respectively.