Invitations to dinner at the illustrious Château Latour in Pauillac do not come along often, so my acceptance was immediate and my anticipation heightened by the added incentive that an array of great Bordeaux was to accompany a menu created by master chef Michel Guérard.
Château Latour is, of course, one of the Premiers Crus of Bordeaux and has been since the Classification of 1855 that ranked the various wines of the region in quality categories. The château itself dates to 1331, and the tower (below) that gives Latour its name to1453, although that one was destroyed during the Hundred Years’ War, replaced by the current one (actually built as a pigeon roost) in the 1620s.
Uninterrupted ownership by the Ségur family ended only in 1963, when the estate was acquired by the British Pearson Group, then in 1989 sold to the international corporation Allied-Lyons, which in turn sold it to Francois Pinault in 1993 at a value of £86 million, which seems like a steal now. Today Latour produces about 300,000 bottles (25,000 case)s of its three wines (the second, Les Forts de Latour, the third sold as Pauillac), set on 93 hectares on the Left Bank of the Gironde River and modernizing the château in the current century.
The dinner at the estate, attended by about 400 people, most from within the wine community but with a good number of celebrities and French politicians, also offered a tasting of the Grand Crus of Sauternes and Barsac from 2012 to 2014. What was so remarkable was the timing of the meal, which took place last June, by a service staff and kitchen that turned out superb French cuisine with military timing, plates put down with dispatch and removed when everyone was terminé. Within minutes the next course arrived, accompanied at the same moment by sommeliers pouring the wines, all at the perfect temperature.
The meal began with potatoes cooked in parchment paper and ennobled by caviar, accompanied by Château Haut-Brion Blanc 2009 in magnum, which showed wonderful structure and that identifying clay and limestone of the terroir. For the next course, morel mushrooms and local asparagus atop a pillow of mushroom foam, each table received a different Grand Cru of Médoc, in the case of our table, Brane-Cantenac 2009, a Second Growth in Margaux that was very sophisticated and a true expression of everything Bordeaux manifests in its balance of fruit, acid and soft tannins.
The next course was a tart of chicken with foie gras and wild cabbage, with which we enjoyed a 1982 vintage of Château La Lagune (Third Growth), owned by the Frey family and run by Caroline Frey. It had a lush, blossoming bouquet, softened tannins and a velvety texture that comes from 30 percent Merlot.
Curiously enough, the host wine of the evening, Château Latour, served its 1975 in magnum with a cheese course of Brie de Meaux and truffles. Not out of the ordinary, but I find that dry red wines, though often served with cheese, do not show as well with examples as rich as Brie de Meaux, which I would have preferred with the Haut-Brion Blanc 2009. Nevertheless, the wine showed astonishing freshness for one so old, peppery still, its fruit emerging beneath the tannins, with a very long, satisfying finish.
But, for me, the best was yet to come. A dessert of mascarpone with a confit of apricots and scented with verveine was accompanied by a Château d’Yquem 2005, as perfect as any wine I’ve ever had. The distinguishing mark of Yquem has always been the backbone of botrytis and oak behind the intensity of sweetness from a blend of 80 percent Semillon and 20 percent Sauvignon Blanc. It proved again why it is considered one of the greatest wines in the world.
There are evenings you remember and then there are evenings you never forget. This grand assemblage at Château Latour, where the sun set late and the event ended with a spectacle of fireworks, was one where I learned as much as I reveled in the glamour of it all. Buoyed by the food, the wine and the company, I knew that everything I have always found unique about France was on full display that warm June night in Bordeaux.