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  • Country ranking ?

    1 005
  • Producer ranking ?

    36
  • Decanting time

    3h
  • When to drink

    now to 2035
  • Food Pairing

    Scallop Carpaccio and celeriac mousse

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Château Smith Haut Lafitte white 2012 offers a bright, vibrant pale yellow colour with green hue. The first nose, quite discreet, offers delicate notes of white fruits and flowers. Through aeration the nose open up to become very expressive, complex, rich with an explosion of yellow fruits, peach, apricot, mango, citrus fruits (grapefruit), sweet spices, star anise and even a hint of caramel. This nose, both mature and refreshing, reflects per...

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The Story

Each Château has its own style. What would be, according to you, the specificities of Château Smith Haut Lafitte White?

About our style, I would say that either you love our wines or you hate them. But be careful, if you do love them, it is for life… Our style is quite special, even paradoxical.
We have 90% of Sauvignon Blanc in our blend, however this proportion is almost unidentifiable on a blind tasting because of the age of our vines, ...

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Wine Information

2012: a vintage driven by reactivity 

After a chaotic beginning of the vine cycle: early bud break and blockage in April (cold and wet); the vine found back a proper growing path with the beautiful weather conditions from May to September. However, the delay and heterogeneity undergone because of this difficult start of the vine cycle was to be felt all year long. 

Once more, the reality of great terroirs, the efforts made in the quest f...

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Vintage 2012

The 2012 Bordeaux vintage report.

The 2012 Bordeaux vintage is a year for vineyard management and workers. Call it a winemakers vintage, or change your tune and call it vineyard managers vintage. Either descriptor works perfectly. Wineries with the financial capacity to take the necessary measures in the vineyards during the season, coupled with the willingness to severely downgrade unripe grapes, will produce the best wines. Even then, it ...

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Tasting note

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Written Notes

Very luscious nose but not over the top in a Pape-Clément way. Definitely very ripe… Full throttle but with a refreshing smokiness on the finish. Great balance and already giving masses of pleasure. Definitely ripe style but not blowsy. Distinctively Léognan. Very satisfying. But see my drinking dates. I do wonder about the timing of the release of some of these more luscious dry white bordeaux.

  • 91p

Tasted blind at the Southwold 2012 tasting. The 2012 Smith-Haut-Lafitte Blanc has an intense bouquet with mint-fresh Granny Smith apple scents, quite exotic compared to its peers, greengage and gooseberry, a touch of tinned apricot. The palate is crisp and fresh on the entry with lime and gooseberry notes, the acidity well judged, a healthy veneer of new oak, but it is totally in sync with the fruit. Give this 4-5 years for everything to fully assimilate and you will have a splendid white Bordeaux. This is pure nectar. Tasted January 2016.

  • 95p

Château Smith Haut Lafitte white 2012 offers a bright, vibrant pale yellow colour with green hue. 

The first nose, quite discreet, offers delicate notes of white fruits and flowers. Through aeration the nose open up to become very expressive, complex, rich with an explosion of yellow fruits, peach, apricot, mango, citrus fruits (grapefruit), sweet spices, star anise and even a hint of caramel. This nose, both mature and refreshing, reflects perfectly the good weather conditions at the end of grape maturation. 

On the palate, the subtle balance between acidity freshness and fruit maturity appears clearly to give the wine a harmony of ripeness, richness, tension and vivacity. The attack is tense, then the mouth enlarges to become dense, more unctuous with a sense of fatness. And the acidity dimension comes back to add lightness and freshness on a very long finale that emphasizes this wine aroma complexity through yellow and white fruits, broom flower, spices, vanilla, stone flint… A very mineral mouth, undoubtedly marked by the terroir. 

2012 Smith Haut Lafitte Blanc (90% Sauvignon Blanc, 5% Semillon, 5% Sauvignon Gris) Lots of fruit and complexity in both aroma and palate: peachy, orange peel, lemon zest, semi-ripe mango and a touch of floral. Round, creamy, honey and fruity style with a hint of mineral. Medium (+) body, medium (+) length, intense , medium (+) acidity. Very balance and nice integration of oak into the wine, that it would not be over-expressive or roasty. A harmony and lovely wine. It reflected clearly the warm weather characters of the vintage when comparing with 2013 vintage- a totally different style of white wines: crispy, mineral VS round and fruity.
  • 95p
Pale lemon yellow. Grapefruits, minerals, citrus, mandarin and vanilla nose. Fresh acidity, fruity, rounded, fresh and elegant, minerals, long. 93
  • 93p
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Information

Origin

Martillac, Bordeaux

Vintage Quality

Above Average

Value For Money

Good

Investment potential

No Potential

Fake factory

None

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Inside Information

Château Smith Haut Lafitte white 2012 offers a bright, vibrant pale yellow colour with green hue. The first nose, quite discreet, offers delicate notes of white fruits and flowers. Through aeration the nose open up to become very expressive, complex, rich with an explosion of yellow fruits, peach, apricot, mango, citrus fruits (grapefruit), sweet spices, star anise and even a hint of caramel. This nose, both mature and refreshing, reflects perfectly the good weather conditions at the end of grape maturation. On the palate, the subtle balance between acidity freshness and fruit maturity appears clearly to give the wine a harmony of ripeness, richness, tension and vivacity. The attack is tense, then the mouth enlarges to become dense, more unctuous with a sense of fatness.

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