Lafite-Rothschild 1986

Deep, dark violet colour. Pronounced nose with tremendous depth and complexity. Black currants, blackberries, cedar, black olives, dark chocolate, liquorice, and cigar with hints of violets. Very concentrated medium-bodied palate with great volume. Very firm super smooth tannins, vivid acidity and deliciously ripe elegant fruitiness of cassis and blackberries. Toasty and spicy oakiness with complex range of flavours supports discreetly the fruit. The wine seems to have an almost never-ending finish. Although the wine offers all this now, it will certainly offer double pleasure after a decade or two or even three. If you have only a bottle or two of this, it is worth waiting patiently.

The 1986 Lafite-Rothschild is a great wine although over several recent encounters it is never a convincing "perfect" wine. This mirrors the bottle I tasted at the property in 2016: blackberry and graphite on the nose, gawky at first, but coalescing with time. The palate is well balanced with firm tannins, strong graphite scents unfolding with time, superb energy if not delivering quite the finesse and precision that the very best Lafite-Rothschild will bestow. This is a wine that benefits from long decanting, say five or six hours, though it never quite reaches the ethereal heights that it could have done. Tasted at the International Business & Wine First Growth Dinner at the Four Seasons.

Ruby with garnet rim, A level fill. Closed, some coffee, very youthful, sweet tobacco, flirts the hell out of you, who can say only Burgundies seduce! Hints of cigars, blackcurrants, prunes underneath, pure, floral, great and playful acidity, tannins grips the tongue, playing with it, marvelous structure, fantastic length and such complexity, ever increasing, decanted for at least four hours, and even so needed a couple of hours to really settle in the glass. Will last another 20 years easily. 100

This is a marvelous showcase for Lafite. Cherries, truffles, currants, mint, all blending beautifully on the bouquet. This is a heftier Lafite, responding to the vagaries of the vintage, it opens on the palate with blackberry, cloves and some graphite. You get some ginger, nuts, sweet caramel almost at and past the mid palate. You have filigree tannins and pitch perfect acidity here. Cassis and cherries emerge for the finish, generous, graceful, pure, lavish and lacy at the same time. Let it just add a notch or two more of complexity. Already the gorgeous texture, balance and well-integrated fruit, are more than beginning to dazzle. 96-97 Points