| Region | |
|---|---|
| Subregion | France > Bordeaux > Left Bank > Pauillac |
| Colour | Red |
| Type | Still |
Lafite is one of the greatest wines of Bordeaux and particularly popular with Chinese wine buyers. It was one of the four Chateaux originally classed as "First Growths" in 1855 and has been owned by the Rothschild dynasty since 1868. The vineyards are situated in the Northern sector of Pauillac near to Saint Estèphe. Recent changes have seen the arrival of Jean-Guillaume Prats who previously ran Cos d'Estournel so well and then managed the overseas wine interests of the giant LVMH group.
Deep and typical on the nose with blackcurrants, black tea, leather and graphite. The aromas draw you down to the palate. Full-bodied, creamy and beautiful with extremely polished, refined tannins. Yet, it’s powerful and long. Highest percent of cabernet sauvignon ever. Juicy and almost exotic, but very tidy with ripe tannins. Try after 2025 and onwards.
A blend of 97% Cabernet Sauvignon, 2.5% Merlot, and 0.5% Petit Verdot, the 2017 Lafite Rothschild is deep garnet-purple in color. It rolls out with expressive notions of blackcurrant cordial, fresh juicy blackberries, and Morello cherries, plus touches of violets, crushed rocks, wild sage, and pencil shavings, with a hint of lavender. Light to medium-bodied, the palate delivers exquisitely fine-grained tannins and fantastic tension to counter the tightly knit red and black fruit layers, finishing long and minerally. A stunning wine!
The 2017 Lafite-Rothschild was bottled at the end June 2019, two months prior to my visit to the château. It has a lovely bouquet with blackberry, briary, brine and cedar. Generous, especially for the normally more introspective First Growth. The palate is medium-bodied with supple tannins that frame the blackberry and bilberry fruit. The acidity is nicely judged and there is a satisfying linearity from start to finish. Classic Lafite-Rothschild in many ways, though it does not have the precision on the bravura finish that singles out a truly great vintage like the 2016. Yet, this will certainly give 20-30 years of pleasure. 2024 - 2055.
Tasted blind. Deep ruby colour. Succulent, spicy and earthy nose. Very plump and full. Intensely fruited on the palate, but there is a gravelly richness and savour to match. Focused, smoky and dense, yet very vibrant with acidity. This is elegant, with a pure and effortless intensity. Still building momentum on the finish, it will reward patience.
Drink 2027 – 2045
This is delicious, a real take-a-step-back moment. There's a high percentage of Cabernet Sauvignon here, complex and layered with cassis and bilberry notes that tease the attack before being filled out with charcoal, slate, cedar, and even truffle hints, even at this early stage. The finish just doesn't want to quit. It's effortless but questioning, and most importantly it feels like a Lafite - for me this is a contender for red wine of the vintage. Less intense than 2016, but still just beautiful. 40hl/ha yield, unaffected by frost, or maybe just one tiny corner. 99% new oak. 3.75pH.
Drinking Window 2027 - 2045
Inky crimson. Dark, savoury black fruit, a little understated in aroma. On the palate, could do with just a little more flesh. It's balanced and not overdone on the tannins but not the standout first growth this year. Elegant but rather underwhelming, perhaps lacking the sweetness and mid-palate depth of Merlot. Tannins very fine. Fresh and really quite soft, textural finesse but rather understated fruit. Savoury graphite finish.
Drink 2027-2040
The 2017 vintage is strongly Cabernet Sauvignon with 96 % in the final blend with 3.5% Merlot and 0.5% Petit Verdot. A medium-deep ruby colour in the glass, there is great purity to this elegant, refined nose of pure cassis. With a little air wafts of sweet vanilla and savoury nutmeg come through, but much of the complexity is subsumed underneath structure at this early stage. This follows on the palate with very polished and fine-grained tannins gently supporting a dense and compact core of black fruit. This is all about poise and balance, with the fruit driving through to a long finish. It is only at the finish that the wine reveals its full potential, with creamy vanilla and fleshier black fruits lingering long after the wine has gone. This is subtle, refined, and harmonious.
Spring violets the nose has fragrance and freshness the palate starts with bramble and bilberry. Mid generosity the mid palate has a rich mix of black fruits the back palate ripe black cherry lighter on the finish length purity elegance. Drink 2027 - 2042.
This is a very quiet and closed Lafite, with tannin and oak blocking the entry. The fruit is compact, very long but gruffly uncommunicative and this is an infuriating wine to taste now. I waited a full half an hour in order to agitate this wine into conversation and it was still stubbornly refusing to cooperate. This is a lean, controlled, introverted wine, as Lafite often is, but it also hints at something fascinating behind the veneer, and I cannot quite get a glimpse of what there is hidden therein. It will blossom, as always, but I am not going to guess at just how demonstrative this vintage will be in the future because there is an outside chance that it will just continue on its current path, quietly evolving and making little fuss.
Composed of 97% Cabernet Sauvignon, 2.5% Merlot and 0.5% Petit Verdot, the 2017 Lafite Rothschild is deep garnet-purple colored. It opens slowly, cautiously with restrained notes of chocolate-covered cherries, mulberries, warm blackcurrants and wild blueberries, followed by emerging notions of smoked meats, fragrant earth, crushed rocks and lilacs with touches of cast-iron pan and Marmite toast. Medium-bodied, the palate is deceptively light and quite ethereal on entry, growing in the mouth to reveal elegant layers of energetic red and black fruits with tons of savory accents. Framed by exquisitely ripe, wonderfully fine-grained tannins, it has exhilarating freshness and a very long, hypnotically perfumed finish. On a final note, the alcohol here is a jaw-dropping 12.5%, which is something of a miracle considering the ripeness of the Cabernet. A total head-turner, I cannot wait to follow the development of this wine! Drink 2024-2057.
The 2017 Lafite-Rothschild had been blended in mid-March, a couple of weeks prior to my visit, therefore it was important to let this settle and aerate. Moreover, I returned on my final day in Bordeaux mid-April for a second reading. It feels very aloof at first, even a little green, although that ebbs away with time in the glass to reveal pure blackberry and bilberry fruit, touches of brine, cedar and graphite. Patience discloses a really quite sublime array of aromas. The palate is where all the action is: filigree tannin, very well judged acidity, harmonious and poised with a silky smooth finish that glides across the mouth. It does not possess enormous length but it is very precise and, for want of a better, less clichéd word, classic from start to finish. Tasted twice with consistent notes. Drink 2023 - 2050.
This is very tight and tannic with lots of blackcurrant and sweet-tobacco character. Firm and powerful tannin texture sets this up for a long and chewy finish, yet it remains very compact and polished. It's a wine that possesses all the hallmarks of Lafite — everything from flavors to structure.
Composed of 97% Cabernet Sauvignon, 2.5% Merlot and 0.5% Petit Verdot, the 2017 Lafite Rothschild is deep garnet-purple colored. It opens slowly, cautiously with restrained notes of chocolate-covered cherries, mulberries, warm blackcurrants and wild blueberries, followed by emerging notions of smoked meats, fragrant earth, crushed rocks and lilacs with touches of cast-iron pan and Marmite toast. Medium-bodied, the palate is deceptively light and quite ethereal on entry, growing in the mouth to reveal elegant layers of energetic red and black fruits with tons of savory accents. Framed by exquisitely ripe, wonderfully fine-grained tannins, it has exhilarating freshness and a very long, hypnotically perfumed finish. On a final note, the alcohol here is a jaw-dropping 12.5%, which is something of a miracle considering the ripeness of the Cabernet. A total head-turner, I cannot wait to follow the development of this wine! Drink: 2024 - 2057
Composed of 96% Cabernet Sauvignon with 3.5% Merlot and 0.5% Petit Verdot, the deep garnet-purple colored 2017 Lafite Rothschild is a little shy on the nose to begin, opening out to scents of crushed blackcurrants, black cherries and warm black plums with touches of yeast extract, charcuterie, cigar box and fertile loam plus a hint of iron ore. POW—the paradoxically ethereal, medium-bodied palate hits you with vibrant, exhilarating black fruit and previously latent floral layers, supported with fantastic freshness and super fine-grained, pixelated tannins, finishing with persistent mineral and perfumed layers. Truly Stunning.
