Chateau Lafite Rothschild Premier Cru Classe, Pauillac 2024

Fragranced red berries and purple flowers. Vivid purple colour in the glass. Supple and generous, this has a punch of plum and cranberry fruit straight away, zingy and lively but wonderfully textured too. Chalky, a little bitter, but soft and long. Juicy but more high toned and sleek, tension is there in the live wire nature of the wine. Bright, focussed, not so calm - more energy to the fore with prominent tannins but a lovely weight and plenty of fruit flavour! A vintage where Lafite excels once again. 16% press. 3.75pH. A yield of 32hl/ha.

According to Technical Director Eric Kohler, the 2024 Lafite-Rothschild was picked from September 23 to October 7 and underwent a short vinification—less than three weeks—plus a gentle extraction. The blend includes 16% vin de presse. It has an understated and typical Lafite nose with crushed stone infusing the black fruit, black olive tapenade and marine scents. It comes across as statesmanlike, which is just how you want your First Growth, even in a tricky vintage like this. The palate is medium-bodied with fresh saline notes on the entry. Tensile from the start, this has very impressive focus and is a tad more peppery than previous vintages. This is an assured Lafite-Rothschild with a very seaweed/Japanese wakame-tinged finish. Very promising and one of the very few “cerebral” Left Bank wines in 2024.

Rich texture, this stands head and shoulders above many in the vintage, with graphite, crayon, cassis bud rather than exuberant black fruits, this is precise, savoury, delineated, floral, gunsmoke, juicy, captures the effortless elegance that Lafite does so so well, and it totally delivers. Harvest 23 September to 7 October, 32hl/h yield, above the Pauillac average, 16% press wine included in the blend. Director Eric Kohler's 33rd year in Pauillac. I am giving a slightly earlier begin drinking date, but I am certain this will age exceptionally well as Lafite always does. Slightly earlier starting date for drinking than usual, eight years following harvest.

The 2024 Lafite-Rothschild is a sensual, elegant wine very much in the style of the year. Plush and enveloping, with lovely forward fruit, the 2024 is very Lafite, perhaps a bit reticent, but super-expressive just the same. Black cherry, pomegranate, blood orange and a kiss of espresso all build in the glass, framed by quintessentially finessed Lafite tannins. The 2024 is sublime. I expect it will be one of the to be one of the top wines in the Médoc when all is said and done.

Deep garnet-purple colored. Has a very perfumed nose of violets, red cherries, and iris, leading to a core of cassis, pencil lead, wild sage, and iron ore with a touch of fertile loam. The light-bodied palate is very light on its feet, issuing a lacy network of elegant red berry and mineral flavors, framed by ripe, fine-grained tannins and seamless freshness, finishing long and perfumed.

As to the Grand Vin, the 2024 Château Lafite-Rothschild is based on 96% Cabernet Sauvignon, 3% Merlot, and 1% Petit Verdot, resting in 90% new oak. It has classic Lafite aromatics of cassis, lead pencil shavings, and scorched earth, all leading to a beautifully textured, medium-bodied Pauillac with solid ripeness, a pure, layered mouthfeel, ripe yet present tannins, and outstanding length. It holds plenty of Lafite character while staying in the elegant, balanced, and moderately concentrated style of the vintage. I suspect it will be brilliant with just short-term cellaring, and I wouldn't be surprised to see it evolve gracefully over a broad drinking window.

A blend of 96% Cabernet Sauvignon, 3% Merlot and 1% Petit Verdot, the 2024 Lafite Rothschild offers up aromas of minty blackcurrants, violets, incense, loamy soil and cigar box, followed by a medium-bodied, pillowy and open-knit palate built around tangy acids and powdery tannins, concluding with a discreetly herbal finish. Harvest began on September 24 and concluded on October 4, delivering a Lafite in something of a throwback style, nodding to the wines made here in the 1970s.