Les Forts de Latour Pauillac 1996 070226CRISP and extraordinary vineyard sites combine

and extraordinary vineyard sites combine to create some of Italy's most profound wines

then aged five months in oak casks

Rodez is not afraid of extra aging in barrels

It's a Tuesday-night Merlot in the best possible sense

just three years after acquiring their third and final parcel on this grand cru site

Les Forts de Latour Pauillac 1996 070226CRISP and extraordinary vineyard sites combineNow hitting its stride: at thirty years old, the 1996 Les Forts de Latour the second wine of Chteau Latour is moving into the long plateau of mature Pauillac. 1996 was a classical, structured Left Bank vintage that favored Cabernet, and Forts de Latour shows that pedigree: once tightly wound and tannic, it has now mellowed into a firm but silken framework supporting cassis, cedar, tobacco, leather, and the umami complexity that comes only with age. A