Ratings & Tasting Notes:

98 points — James Suckling (June 2016)
Suckling describes pulling a lone bottle from his cellar to remind some Italian vintners of the quality of the 1995 Bordeaux vintage, and finds the wines finally opening up. A red of incredible depth and finesse, with cedar, cigar box and tobacco character alongside currants and fresh tobacco undertones. Full-bodied yet tight and dense, marked by precision, and by his account refined, intense, fresh and beautiful.

96 points — Wine Spectator (March 2007)
Intense aromas of blackberry, black liquorice and currant with mineral undertones. Full-bodied, with a solid core of tannins and a long, silky finish — still holding back, but concentrated and powerful. The reviewer notes that while the 1996 gets the attention, he considers this the superior wine and expects it to remain so. Ranked number 13 in the Top 100 Wines of 1998 and flagged as a Cellar Selection.

95 points — Wine Advocate (Robert Parker, February 1998)
Parker records that only one third of the harvest made it into the final blend, which is 75% Cabernet Sauvignon, 17% Merlot and 8% Cabernet Franc. Dark ruby-purple, with a sweet, powdered mineral, smoky, weedy cassis-scented nose. Beautiful sweetness of fruit runs through a medium-bodied, tightly knit but gloriously pure and well-delineated Lafite. Not as powerful or massive as the 1996, but beautifully made, with outstanding credentials and remarkable promise.

93+ points — Vinous (Stephen Tanzer, May 1998)
Dark ruby-red. Sappy, expressive aromas of cherry, plum, minerals, woodsmoke and game, with an exotic suggestion of baked apple. Rather subtle on the attack, then quickly expanding to fill the mouth — a big, deep, very rich vintage for Lafite, unusually generous at that early stage and extremely long on the aftertaste. Tanzer notes it went into a shell with aeration and showed a hint of tobacco leaf vegetality, with finishing notes of coconut, woodsmoke and tobacco adding interest.

Cult Wines International Notes:

Château Lafite-Rothschild is among the most famous and most collected wines in the world, ranked first among the First Growths in the 1855 classification and with an estate history reaching back to at least the thirteenth century. Its 112 hectares of vineyard sit on the high ground of northern Pauillac, on fine deep gravel mixed with aeolian sand over a subsoil of tertiary limestone. Pauillac is the commune of the most stern and structured wines on the Left Bank, yet Lafite is known for an understated elegance atypical of its neighbours — a wine built on perfume, precision and restraint rather than sheer power, and one that rewards patience more reliably than almost any other.

1995 was the vintage Bordeaux needed after four rain-affected years — a sunny season with a dry summer, light and beneficial rains in early September, and a harvest at normal dates with ripe fruit and notably fine tannins. Selection here was severe, with only a third of the crop going into the grand vin, blended at 75% Cabernet Sauvignon, 17% Merlot and 8% Cabernet Franc. The wine is dark-hued and tightly knit: blackberry, cassis, cherry, plum and currant over cedar, cigar box, tobacco, black liquorice, woodsmoke and a powdered mineral note. Full-bodied yet precise, with a solid core of fine tannins and a long, silky finish. Held back for many years, it has come into its own, and remains a wine of freshness and considerable reserve.

Bottle Size:

750 mL

Storage History:

Always stored on its side in a climate-controlled cellar.

Condition:

Outstanding condition.

Please note: The condition of the bottle you will receive is accurately reflected by the one shown in the images.