The Tb points given to this wine are the world’s most valid and most up-to-date evaluation of the quality of the wine. Tastingbook points are formed by the Tastingbook algorithm which takes into account the wine ratings of the world's best-known professional wine critics, wine ratings by thousands of tastingbook’s professionals and users, the generally recognised vintage quality and reputation of the vineyard and winery. Wine needs at least five professional ratings to get the Tb score. Tastingbook.com is the world's largest wine information service which is an unbiased, non-commercial and free for everyone.
News
“The most famous ‘comet’ vintage. Early harvest starting 14th September. Fairly abundant crop of very good wines.
3* Michael Broadbent
Labelled ‘CHATEAU LAFITE grand Vin, JJ Van der Berghe, Bordeaux, recorked at the chateau in 1980’
On the pale side with hints of red; immediately forthcoming old bouquet reminding me of spearmint, then Chartreuse; touch of sweetness on the palate, distinctive, minty flavour, vestiges of sustaining tannin and acidity, good length.
The oldest vintage in Wilfred Jaegar pre-phylloxera Lafite tasting at the hillside home south of San Franciso, June 2001
Wine Description
The Story
The Château Lafite estate run by the Rothschilds is, with its 100 hectares of cultivated land, the largest of the main Pauillac vineyards.
It is located in the highest part of the area and the view from its château, with its conical towers that appear on the label, takes in the banks of the River Gironde, which flows nearby. The wines are a blend of four different varieties of grape – Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, Petite Verdot and Cabernet Franc. Lafite matures slightly earlier than other Premier Cru wines in the region on account of the generous amounts of Merlot used, and it is this that also makes the wine more delicate and subtle than those wines which are completely dominated by Cabernet Sauvignon.
“Lafite has a soul, a beautiful, generous, kindly soul. Lafite turns bare earth into heaven. Lafite is harmony, a harmony between man and nature, because without our magnificent winegrowers, nothing would be accomplished.”
Baron Eric de Rothschild
Of the five Premier Cru wines in the region, Château Lafite to my mind has managed to produce the year’s best wine in many of the top years in 1900th centrury. The times I have spent in the company of a 1934, 1953, 1959, 1982 and 1986 have been unforgettable. And it was then that I always remembered how many wine critics fondly describe Lafite as ‘the perfection of elegance’.
Vineyard soil: fine gravel mixed with aeolien sands on a bedrock of tertiary limestone
Production area: 103 ha
Grape varieties: Cabernet Sauvignon (71%), Merlot (25%), Cabernet Franc (3%) and Petit Verdot (1%)
Average age of vines: 30 years
Harvest method: hand picked
Winemaking: the vinification is nowadays done with all the sophisticated instruments which modern oenology has created. Fermentation takes place in large oak vats in which the musts remain for 18 to 25 days.
Ageing: the wines are aged entirely in new barrels for 18 to 24 months. During this time,the wine is racked 7 times and is fined with the whites of 6 eggs per barrel. Only certain vats are selected to make the Grand Vin, Lafite. The others are used to make the second wine of Lafite, the “Carruades de Lafite”.
Wine Information
Château Lafite-Rothschild--Vintage 1811
Pauillac, 1er cru classé
Lot 373 level: base of neck
Original, hand-blown, squat, dark glass bottle with shallow punt. Height 111/3 in. (30cm), diameter of base 5 in. (12.75 cm). New Château capsule. Cork visibly slightly shrunk in neck. On one side of the bottle is a new Château label, on the other, the old label, slightly torn reads, '1811/CHATEAU LAFITTE (sic)/I-J Van der Berghel/Bordeaux,' and printed slip label of Domaines Baron de Rothschild. 'Rebouchage fait par le Maitre du Château en 1986 (corrected to 1987).' The bottle was recorked in June 1987 by the cellarmaster of Château Lafite, M. Revelle, in the presence of the then owner. The wine was fairly light in colour but had a very healthy smell with no hint of oxidation. It was not tasted but was topped up with a small quantity of Lafite 1896 vintage.
Lot 374 level: top shoulder; hand blown glass; Rebouché en 1986, lightly bin soiled label, slightly protruding capsule
1811 was possibly the greatest vintage of the 19th Century, indeed arguably of all time. It was highly successful in every European wine district, from Tokay, acrosss Austria and the Rhine and throughout France.
There were perfect growing conditions and the picking began in Bordeaux on September 14th. The vintage was reported to be magnificent and abundant. "It sometimes happens that a good vintage is glorified by the appearance of a comet. One such year was 1630, but 1811, more famous.... is the vintage usually referred to as the comet year." (Alexis Lichine's Encyclopaedia of Wines & Spirits); "wines so marvellous that they defied superlatives" (H. Warner Allen) A History of Wine). Lafite "drinking gracefully at 115 years of age" (Maurice Healey Stay Me with Flagons) was considered to be the finest red Bordeaux ever made and the pioneer of great vintage clarets, and ranked historically by H. Warner Allen, with the Opimian vintage of 121 B.C.
There seems to be no firm definition of the bottle size referred to as "tappit-hen". Believed to be of Scottish origin, a tappit-hen can vary, according to which definition one follows, from 1 1/2 bottles to a tregnum or 3-bottle bottle. It is safest to say that it approximates to a magnum.
Recommended glass shape
Average Bottle Price
| 2011 | 2010 | 2005 | 1995 |
|---|---|---|---|
| 24 899€ -14.0% | 28 944€ +8.8% | 26 598€ +52.5% | 17 444€ |
This data comes from the FINE Auction Index, a composite of average prices for wines sold at commercial auctions in 20 countries. The average prices from each year have been collected since 1990. This chart plots the index value of the average price of the wines.