Chateau Lafite Rothschild Premier Cru Classe, Pauillac 2015

Lead and graphite are complimented by notes of blueberries and blackberries. Blackcurrants, too. Full-bodied and focused with very round and polished tannins. Elegance with power. Very classic nature for Lafite.

Drink 2022+

A softly fragrant Lafite that is delicate and finessed, hiding its concentration under a slow build through the palate. Fragrant, lace like tannins, cassis, bilberry, crayon, cigar box, showcases the way to weave through this ripe vintage while holding on to signature nuance. This is a Lafite that will grow into gulpable drinkability with another decade in bottle, and is already gorgeous, pure estate signature. If you are looking for a 2015 that is exuberant and overripe, look elsewhere.

Drink 2025 to 2045.

Rich, powerful and enveloping, the 2015 Lafite-Rothschild is endowed with serious volume and textural resonance. Super-ripe plum, smoke and spice notes emerge in the glass, but only with great reluctance. Although the aromatics aren't giving much at this point, the palate is much more expressive. The wine's sheer power and authoritative tone result in an unusually dramatic Lafite. The 2015 is 91% Cabernet Sauvignon and 9% Merlot that spent 20 months in oak, which is a bit more than the norm.

Drink 2025 - 2055

The Grand Vin 2015 Lafite-Rothschild checks in as 91% Cabernet Sauvignon and the rest Merlot that was brought all in 100% new oak. Director Eric Kohler who replaced Charles Chevallier in 2015) told me the vintage suffered a touch of dilution but wasn’t a complicated year. The 2015 is an aristocratic, classy example from this estate that offers textbook lead pencil shavings, tobacco, smoked herbs, and graphite as well as a beautiful core of currant and cassis fruit. It’s the most refined and subtle of the first growths, has medium to full-bodied richness, building tannin, and undeniable class and charm. Give bottles 4-5 years of bottle age and enjoy over the following 2-3 decades.

Drink 2023 - 2053

The deep garnet-purple shaded 2015 Lafite Rothschild is blended of 91% Cabernet Sauvignon and 9% Merlot and was matured for 20 months in new oak barrels from Tonnellerie des Domaines their own cooperage). It is still sporting a lot of cedar at this nascent stage with a vibrant core of black raspberries, red currants and crushed plums plus touches of cigar boxes, violets and underbrush with a waft of tilled loam.

Medium-bodied and elegantly styled with wonderful freshness and depth, it is compellingly earthy/minerally in the mouth with a frame of seductively silky yet very firm tannins and culminating in a very long, racy and pure finish. Boasting spectacular finesse and packed with nuances, clearly, given some of the challenges here in 2015, this is a masterpiece of diligence in the vineyards, careful selection and very clever crafting—bravo!

Drink 2024 - 2045

The 2015 Lafite-Rothschild, bottled in May 2017, is refined and pure on the bouquet with scents of blackberry and bilberry, touches of violet and as usual, from a slightly subdued beginning it opens magnificently with aeration. The palate is medium-bodied, with edgier tannin than many Lafite-Rothschilds I tasted a decade ago, wonderfully balanced with that sense of "vibrancy" that I remarked upon previously. The 2015 is only on the opening page of a long story, but I suspect that it will evolve into a splendid Lafite-Rothschild.

Drink 2020 - 2060