Yup, two vintages in one blog post- by accident. My local shop was running a BOGO on this wine. I am a little leery when shops are giving wine away at half price, a sure sign of it’s inability to sell. However, my goal is to taste every thing in this particular shop (not a huge selection mind you). So, I picked up my two bottles of Latour Camblanes and a bottle of Shiraz. When I arrived at the tasting site, I retrieved all the bottles from my bag and noticed that one of them had a green top on the capsule. Upon further investigation, the labels looked slightly different. I then realized that the staff had placed the 2009 vintage behind the 2008 and the SKU’s must have registered as the same item. I had paid full price for the 2008 and got the 2009 for free- as advertised. I was excited to perform a mini-vertical tasting and proceeded to open both bottles. I started with ’08 and realized my worst fears. The wine needed to be given away at half price, it was just shabby. No flavor profile, very little tannin and generally flat. Yuck. On to the 2009, not so. Cherry and tobacco, some edgy tannins and a crisp acidity made me come back for more. I did not drink any more of the 2008 because I believe strongly that life is too short to drink crappy wine. My drunk friend didn’t care and proceeded to polish it off for us, leaving the far better ’09 for me to ponder and enjoy. In a nutshell, 2009 was a far superior vintage in Bordeaux and this point was highlighted in our little tasting. I would imagine the ’08 was a combination of poorly made wine in an average vintage versus a little more effort put into a far better vintage. It’s a shame really because I am now poisoned by this brand. I will not take a chance on their wine, knowing that they did not perform in an average year and relied on nature to help them out in an excellent year. 2008 1 star and 80 points. 2009 3 stars and 85 points. Would I buy again? Nope.