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Chateau Lafite-Rothschild(1996)
- Winery:
- Château Lafite Rothschild
- Varietal:
- Bordeaux Blend
- Region:
- France > Bordeaux > Médoc > Pauillac
- Type:
- Red Wine
- User Tags:
- powerful, red grape, color descriptors, complex, berry, black currant, mineral, rich, firm, purple
The 1996 Lafite-Rothschild is unquestionably this renowned estate's greatest wine. As I indicated last year, only 38% of the crop was deemed grand enough to be put into the final blend, which is atypically high in Cabernet Sauvignon (83% Cabernet Sauvignon, 7% Cabernet Franc, 7% Merlot, and 3% Petit Verdot). This massive wine may be the biggest, largest-scaled Lafite I have ever tasted. It will require many years to come around, so I suspect all of us past the age of fifty might want to give serious consideration as to whether we should be laying away multiple cases of this wine. It is also the read more...
- Stephen Tanzer
- International Wine Cellar
- Issue 103, July/August 2002
-
July 2007
- ($335-$346) Full, deep ruby, by far the darkest of these vintages. Knockout nose of great precision: cassis, black cherry, lead pencil, licorice, dried herbs and mint. Densely packed and extremely unevolved; a powerfully structured wine with uncanny precision and penetration. Finishes with powerful, firm tannins and exceptional mounting persistence. An infant, but a great Northern Medoc '96 in the making.
-
June 2007
- 1996 gave us a rich, dense, well balanced and extremely complex wine. Some tasters are very positive and think the 96 vintage shows the elegance of 1953, and the power of 1959: what a good perspective for this vintage which promises a very long keep.
- The Wine Advocate
- 100/100
-
June 2007
- Wine Advocate # 122
- Apr-99
- 100/100
-
April 2008
