Chateau Smith Haut Lafitte, Rouge Cru Classe, Pessac-Leognan 2018

The 2018 Château Smith Haut Lafitte is based on 60% Cabernet Sauvignon, 34% Merlot, and the balance Cabernet Franc and Petit Verdot, all of which was brought up in 60% new French oak. Its dense purple color is followed by an incredible perfume of blackcurrants, blueberries, camphor, scorched earth, chocolate, and tobacco. It's young and unevolved, yet the purity is off the charts, and it slowly gives up more spice and floral notes with time in the glass. Hitting the palate with full-bodied richness, it's an incredibly concentrated, powerful wine that has plenty of baby fat covering serious amounts of underlying structure and tannins. It has some up-front appeal from an educational standpoint, yet really needs a decade of bottle age and is going to keep for 30-40 years in cold cellars. It comes closest in my mind to a mix of the 2010 and 2016.

Purity of fruit here with plum and cherry aromas, as well as wet earth and spice. Light stone. Very floral and vivid. Full-bodied with layers of ripe tannins that are balanced and polished. Savory finish. Incredibly polished and refined. Goes on for minutes. One of the finest Smith-Haut Lafittes I have tasted. Drink after 2024.

Smith Haut-Lafitte and Cos d'Estournel are the only two wines here that I have chosen to highlight in the top 100 for both their red and white bottles. For SHL in particular, it seemed crazy to suggest wines that sum up the best of the vintage without drawing your attention to both colours. This one, with its unfussy yet luxurious feel, is really one to savour. The fruits are autumnal and enticing, textured raspberry and black cherry, with liqourice, slate, olive tapenade, smoked earth and cocoa bean sat against fresh acidities that add tension and length. 60% new oak. Harvest 18 September to 10 October. Last year of organic conversion, certified 2019.

The 2018 Smith Haut Lafitte is deep garnet-purple in color. It storms out with profound notes of cassis, black cherries, and dark chocolate, with hints of violets, pencil shavings, and clove oil. Medium to full-bodied, the palate is plush and elegantly styled with seamless freshness and a long mineral-laced finish.

The 2018 Smith Haut Lafitte was very impressive in barrel, and now in bottle, it delivers. Wonderful precision on the nose, subtle at first but unfurling with each swirl of the glass, revealing scents of blackberry and crushed stone, iris petals like before, and maybe a touch more violet. The palate is medium-bodied with fine tension and good structure. This is a very tight Smith Haut Lafitte, and even affording it 3–4 hours of decanting, it remains more reserved vis-à-vis recent vintages. It eventually offers plenty of black fruit, black olives, a light marine influence and a pinch of cracked black pepper on the sturdy finish. An outstanding Smith Haut Lafitte, given the vintage.

The 2018 Smith Haut Lafitte is a powerful wine. Huge, searing tannins dominate the balance. Readers will have to be exceedingly patient. With several hours of air the fruit finally starts to emerge. Blackberry, grilled herb, smoke, licorice and incense all take shape in the glass. The impression is of brooding, somber, unrestrained power. Sadly, mildew took with it 50% of the potential crop.