Château Lafite-Rothschild: Tasting & Drinking

Taking an overall view of the triumvirate of Pauillac first growths, they each have their own characteristics, although it has to be said I find Château Lafite-Rothschild the most difficult to pigeon-hole. Château Latour has a structural majesty and very masculine definition, and yet a perfume and elegance which has on occasion brought a tear to my eye. Château Mouton-Rothschild, meanwhile, has that characteristic spicy and textural seduction which is so typical of the estate and which comes out so clearly in great vintages, even more so under the current team.

And what of Château Lafite-Rothschild?

I find its style the most challenging of the three first growths to understand. Tasting the wine in its youth it has a tight and unyielding structure which would befit many a vintage of Latour, and it has just as much confidence and grip as Mouton-Rothschild, but of the three these characteristics are perhaps less perceptible here than elsewhere. The young Lafite is reserved, unyielding, enigmatic and occasionally rather obdurate. Of the three first growths I think it is Lafite that provides the greatest challenge when trying to draw a line to connect the style, character and quality of embryonic barrel samples with what the wines will offer when they are 20 or 30 (or more) years old. Taste the wines enough times and this becomes obvious. Primeur samples and young, recently bottled vintages so often seem to hide what light they have under the proverbial bushel; but then you pull the cork on a vintage from two decades prior and the wine is simply stunning, often with a more effortless facade then its peers.

That rather enigmatic young wine transforms into a wine of beauty. I have seen it too many times not to simply accept it, and to write it here.

Lafite-Rothschild can truly be great. That is not so say I have not rated other wines higher in some vintages, but I struggle to think of a time when I come back to a good vintage in maturity and have not been impressed. And as the years march on, and those other more showy wines begin to fade and fall by the wayside, Lafite-Rothschild simply soldiers on for a more decades, confident, composed and coherent. All, as I put it above, exhibited with a sense of effortless accomplishment.

Some comment on recent vintages seems appropriate, although as you might expect these fall in line with recent favoured years. For the very highest quality look to 2019, 2016, 2010, 2009 and 2005 – a roll call of the most successful Bordeaux vintages. Having said that, I also adored the wines in 2023, 2022, 2020, 2018 and 2006. The results often exceed expectations in less exalted vintages too, as we should perhaps expect at this level. Look to vintages including 2024, 2021, 2017, 2015, 2014, 2012, 2011, 2008 and 2007 and prepare to be surprised.

As for older vintages (if I am allowed to think of anything aged 25 years or more as ‘old’), I have enjoyed a number including 2000, 1986, 1985, 1983 and even the 1981 vintage over the years. I should also point out you can find one tasting note for the white Vin de Lafite-Blanc further down the page, in the 1935 vintage. Like a number of its younger counterparts, this wine exceeded expectations. And perhaps that – the ability to perform in even lesser vintages, and with many years of bottle age – is the true mark of a first growth, whether red or white. (25/2/04, updated 24/1/07, 11/1/08, 3/11/11, 8/8/13, 24/1/16, 18/9/16, 5/1/26)

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