|
Bettane & Desseauve
(2019)
17
/ 20
|
|
Nez racé et notes d'amande, une pointe de muscade. Corps équilibré mais un peu maigre par rapport à d'autres Pauillac, texture fine, boisé un peu asséchant. Certains amateurs attendent encore un peu plus de vinosité.
|
|
Decanter
(2019)
97
/ 100
|
|
Deep ruby in colour but not so inky as to be impenetrable - that is not their style. Nose subdued at first, but on the palate it unfurls to show violet edging and rich but well defined black fruits. Lafite never tries overly hard to please everyone in its early years, and this will take some time to open up. There is plenty of concentration - there are hefty tannins but they are so finessed that you don't feel them at first. It will almost certainly take a full ten years to reach its drinking window, unlike many in 2017. Its 97% Cabernet Sauvignon means a lot of the power is implied at this point, with only a hint of Merlot to soften and gently layer up through the palate. Extremely impressive. A yield of 40hl/ha, only very lightly affected by frost. 99% new oak. 3.75pH. Drinking Window 2025 - 2050
|
|
JM Quarin
(2020)
97
/ 100
|
|
Couleur sombre, intense et belle. Superbe nez, intense, fin, noble et complexe. Fond subtil de fruits noirs coupé de bois de pin, de fleurs et de réglisse. Touche fumée. Incroyable ! Ultra délicat à l’attaque, très minutieux dans son toucher et fondant en milieu de bouche, pourtant dense, le vin se développe complexe en finale, avec énormément de goût. Il s’achève long et incrachable. Il faut souligner la rareté d’une telle densité pour à peine 12,5° d’alcool. A noter un pH à 3,57 plus bas que celui mentionné en Primeur.
|
|
James Suckling
(2019)
98
/ 100
|
|
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.
|
|
Jeb Dunnuck
(2018)
|
|
The 2017 Lafite-Rothschild is another classic wine from this estate that’s in the same mold as the 2015, if not slightly deeper, darker, and more concentrated. Made from almost all Cabernet Sauvignon and offering a gorgeous array of crème de cassis, lead pencil, graphite, and hints of minerality, it’s medium to full-bodied, pure, precise, and as refined and elegant as it gets. It has the supple, approachable style of the vintage and will be relatively approachable in its youth, yet will cruise for three decades on its balance and purity.
|
|
Jeff Leve
(2018)
97
/ 100
|
|
This most graceful of the First Growths is brimming with luster, tranquility and refined textures. The wine glides in discreetly, slowly building intensity as it expands on your palate while quietly and effortlessly moving from sweet red fruits to darker plums and cherries. There is a flawless ascendancy here with length, purity of fruit and balance. This is a wine of finesse. Produced from a blend of 96% Cabernet Sauvignon, 3.5% Merlot and .5% Petit Verdot, the wine reached 12.8% alcohol with a pH of 3.75. The Grand Vin represents 40% of the harvest, which took place September 11 to September 29.
|
|
Le Figaro
(2018)
|
|
Attaque franche, vin fruité, juteux, séveux, digeste, frais, tout en longueur, manque un peu d'épaisseur, tannins élégants et fondus.
|
|
Parker
(2020)
97
/ 100
|
|
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!
|
|
RVF
18
- 19.0
/ 20
|
|
|
|
Terre de Vins
(2018)
98
- 99
/ 100
|
|
|
|
Vert de Vin
(2020)
98
- 99
/ 100
|
|
Le nez est élégant, aromatique et offre de la puissance, de la profondeur, une fine fraicheur, un joli grain, de l’harmonie ainsi qu’une jolie finesse. On y retrouve des notes de mûre, de violette et plus légèrement de fraise, de cerise rouge/fraiche associées à de fines touches de graphite, de poivre gris ainsi qu’à de très discrètes pointes de fleurs, de muscade et de tabac blond. La bouche est fruitée, élégante, très finement serrée, élégante et offre une jolie définition, de la gourmandise, une trame fine acidulée, de la précision, de la délicatesse, une belle harmonie, de la vivacité ainsi qu’une belle finesse du grain. En bouche ce vin exprime des notes de cerise rouge charnue, de mûre charnue et plus légèrement de fraise charnue associées à de fines touches de prune charnue ainsi qu’à de fines pointes de réglisse, de graphite, de poivre de Cuben, de fleurs de chocolat et à une très discrète pointe d’épices douces/vanille. Une jolie mâche sur la fin de bouche. Une bonne longueur et persistance.
|
|
Vinous (A. Galloni)
(2019)
|
|
During en primeur, the 2017 Lafite-Rothschild was one of the most impressive wines of the Left Bank. Today, it is equally impressive. An ample, richly constituted wine, the 2017 is an unusually dark, somber Lafite, with a percentage of Cabernet Sauvignon that is among the highest ever here. There is a sort of monastic sense of austerity that gives the wine its impression of reserve. Dark cherry, plum, chocolate, licorice, spice and menthol develop in the glass, but it will be many years before it awakens. Readers will have to be patient but there is a lot to look forward to here. Like many of his colleagues, Technical Director Eric Kohler opted for gentle extractions and incorporated a relatively high amount of press wine (16%) into the blend. Those are merely details, though, because the 2017 Lafite is stellar.
|
|
Vinous (N. Martin)
|
|
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.
|
|
Wine Enthusiast
(2019)
97
/ 100
|
|
This wine is poised, gathering freshness and good acidity in the same structured container as the pure black-currant fruits. With 97% Cabernet Sauvignon, the wine has a classicism about it: fruity and structured at the same time. Drink from 2024.
|
|
Wine Spectator
(2020)
|
|
This is a youthful tumble of warmed black currant, fig and blackberry paste flavors, entwined with bay leaf, tobacco, savory, lilac, smoldering charcoal and warm cast iron notes. Terrific stony minerality zips everything up for now, but riveting acidity and excellent energy should carry this easily in the cellar.
|
|
Yves Beck
(2019)
99
/ 100
|
|
Rouge grenat dense aux légers reflets violets. Lafite affiche d’entrée beaucoup de subtilité et de fraîcheur au travers de notes de framboises ainsi qu’une pointe de myrtilles. En bouche le vin est dense, friand et doté de tannins suaves, soyeux, compacts, aux grains très fins. Ils sont en parfaite harmonie avec la structure et confèrent de l’ampleur. Que de fraîcheur et de finesse dans ce vin et, surtout, quelle expression aromatique, jusqu’en finale. Celle-ci est fruitée, racée et persistante. Pour briller il n’y a pas besoin d’être opulent et puissant. Subtil et fin c’est sympa aussi ! Un très grand Lafite 2023-2042
|
