©Linden Wilkie, 7th January, 2022

Michael Broadbent MW once taught me an important lesson about Château Lafite-Rothschild – it needs a lot of air. I was organizing a dinner with him and included was a bottle of the 1985, at the time about 20 years of age, and like so many 1985s, just beautiful to drink already. So, he surprised me a little by suggesting we decant it about two hours ahead of time. Sure enough this lovely wine sang with that typical Lafite combination of multi-faceted nuance, and subtle understatement… but it took in all that air to do it.

That subtlety can also be misleading. Compared to the greater flamboyance we see in Mouton, and reserves of power on display in Latour, Lafite’s elegance might be mistaken for implying a shorter life. But well-stored bottles can quietly tick along for decades, and I have had examples from the 19th century that seem to draw into the present a lost world past, in vital detail.

There are for sure, great highlights in the Lafite catalogue of vintages. 1982 is very complete, both rich and ethereal, somehow well-shaped but with no sides. The world just seems so good with this in your glass. Personally I think I might prefer the 1996. Most recently at our 1996 Médoc dinner I found it ‘…well-buffered, floral scented, poised, with clarity and equilibrium. Wow! I love it. Such refined class, even as I acknowledge the cliché writing that!’  Well, yes, but it really is! 

But Lafite is no show pony that needs the big years to strut. At the ten-year mark I noted of the 1999 a ‘…fine, effortless, stylish, lovely fruit, fragrance, harmonious, seamless and long’ wine, and when I organised a large (30 or so vintages) vertical over two evenings in 2005, the surprise wine was the 1998, a vintage we think of as ‘Right Bank’. In 2008 I noted the ‘98’s ‘…gorgeous fruit, fine, fragrant, though fairly closed, lovely fine texture, totally delicious, long, very promising.’ A sleeper perhaps? Lafite succeeded because of the unfair advantages of terroir… and a strict selection – only 34% of the crop made it to the grand vin apparently. I think this is the one I would check in on today, though my late friend Mr B’s words would be in my ears – ‘give it plenty of air in advance’. Something braised to go alongside it and we have a perfect Hong Kong winter evening set.

And, if you were born in 1988, do yourself a favour and snaffle that imperial (6-litre) of Lafite. It’s a beautifully fresh, cool, elegant, fragrant example, textbook Lafite. 

We have plenty of choices on offer – see our fuller list below, including some stellar recent examples to cellar away.