1985 Santenay

The Louis Latour firm is one of the most important houses in Burgundy. While everyone agrees their white wines are top flight, the red wines have been viewed skeptically ever since Anthony Hanson's book on Burgundy reported that they were pasteurized. This technique, which I have reservations about as well, has been used for almost a century at Louis Latour, and involves heating the wine to 70° C for 7 seconds, then cooling it immediately. There is ample evidence that the Burgundian monks used similar techniques 500 years ago. In any event, the red wines here in 1985 were above average in quality. What one does notice when tasting across the line of red wines is a certain sameness of character and taste. Is this a result of the flash pasteurization or just a house style of Latour? I do not know. Certainly the red wines are big, tannic, alcoholic, and age-worthy, but they do not represent the most complex style of red burgundy.