x
  • Country ranking ?

    356
  • Producer ranking ?

    16
  • Decanting time

    30min
  • When to drink

    now
  • Food Pairing

    Enjoy without food

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.

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96 Points Robert Parker
“Michael Broadbent has long claimed that the 1848 Lafite-Rothschild was one of the great wines of the last century. In his last tasting in 1988, he awarded it five stars. Seven years later it was again extraordinary! The colour was light ruby/garnet, but the exceptionally penetrating bouquet of sweet cedar, ripe, jammy fruit, earth, fruitcake, and lead pencil was followed by a remarkably dense yet elegant wine with exceptional expansion and a velvety texture. It was wonderfully concentrated, sweet, and ripe, with neither the wine's acidity nor tannin showing through its quantity of fruit. It could easily pass for a 45-50 year old wine. Quite stunning, this is truly a legendary wine with an unmistakable Lafite character!” 

5* Michael Broadbent
Three notes. First, a deeply coloured magnificent bottle at the Overton tasting in 1979, then a dried-out bottle with attenuated flavour in 1986 and one labelled ‘R Cabs, Chant’, recorked in 1986. Almost indescribably good despite a touch of residual tannic bitterness. Last noted at Iioyd Flatt’s Lafite tasting, Cki 1988-At best  

 

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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”.

 

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Average Bottle Price

2023 2015
24 909€ +50.1% 16 590€

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.

Information

Origin

Pauillac, Bordeaux

Vintage Quality

Outstanding

Value For Money

Satisfactory

Investment potential

Excellent

Fake factory

Serious

Drinking temperature

16

Inside Information

Wine Advocate #103
Feb 1996
Robert M. Parker, Jr. 96 Drink: N/A  
Michael Broadbent has long claimed that the 1848 Lafite-Rothschild was one of the great wines of the last century. In his last tasting in 1988, he awarded it five stars. Seven years later it was again extraordinary! The color was light ruby/garnet, but the exceptionally penetrating bouquet of sweet cedar, ripe, jammy fruit, earth, fruitcake, and lead pencil was followed by a remarkably dense yet elegant wine with exceptional expansion and a velvety texture. It was wonderfully concentrated, sweet, and ripe, with neither the wine's acidity nor tannin showing through its quantity of fruit. It could easily pass for a 45-50 year old wine. Quite stunning, this is truly a legendary wine with an unmistakable Lafite character!

The notes for this wine are taken from the description of Series III - Flight C of the 1995 tasting conducted in Munich by Helga and Hardy Rodenstock. Many years after the tasting from which this note derives allegations were made concerning the authenticity of old and rare bottles of wine sold by Hardy Rodenstock to collectors around the world. The matter has been the subject of numerous articles, litigation and at least one book. Mr. Parker believes that the wines served to him at this tasting were authentic so this note and the others from that specific tasting continue to be posted on eRobertParker.com.
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