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An elegant but muscular Lafite, really summing up the trajectory that this wine takes over decades in a good vintage. It started out in its early years with huge concentration, more in fact than in many vintages, but it is now showcasing the subtlety and infinite range of flavours and aromatics that makes Lafite such a singular wine. Expect layers of earth, cigar box, liquorice, cold ash, blackberry, cassis, pencil lead, mint leaf and crushed rock minerality. The first Lafite to be put in an anti-fraud engraved bottle. 38% of overall production in the first wine, quite low at the time although typical today. 3% Petit Verdot completes the blend. Drinking Window 2024 - 2040.Decanter | 100 DECTasted three times since bottling, 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 first Lafite-Rothschild to be put into a new engraved bottle (designed to prevent fraudulent imitations). The wine exhibits a thick-looking, ruby/purple color, and a knock-out nose of lead pencil, minerals, flowers, and black currant scents. Extremely powerful and full-bodied, with remarkable complexity for such a young wine, this huge Lafite is oozing with extract and richness, yet has managed to preserve its quintessentially elegant personality. This wine is even richer than it was prior to bottling. It should unquestionably last for 40-50 years. Anticipated maturity: 2012-2050.Robert Parker | 100 RPThe 1996 Lafite-Rothschild is consistent with the bottle shown at the Hong Kong vertical. It has an intense bouquet with blackberry, cedar and a pencil box of graphite. The adjective I use whilst writing this note is that the aromas are "cool". Perhaps given its provenance, this is one of the most backward bottles of 1996 that I have tasted. There are those fine but rigid tannins that lend this Lafite such beguiling symmetry, copious cedar and graphite with vein of brine and oyster shell. I love the precision of this wine and the sappiness on the finish. At the moment, maybe more impressive than enjoyable, so if you can, cellar it for another 5 to 8 years. Tasted at the Lafite-Rothschild 150th anniversary dinner at the estate.Vinous Media | 97+ VMThe beauty and balance of this are phenomenal. Seamless tannins and fruit. Full body yet so balanced and refined. Sweet tobacco and berries. Minerals and cedar. A beautiful wine. The depth is superb. Drink now.James Suckling | 97 JSGorgeous aromas of currant, berries and licorice. Full-bodied, with supersilky tannins and a long, caressing finish. Still holding back. People talk about this as one of the greatest Lafites ever, but I don’t think so.--’95/’96 Bordeaux retrospective. Best after 2008.Wine Spectator | 95 WS

The 1998 Cheval Blanc, a blend of 65% Merlot and 35% Cabernet Franc, is deep garnet-brick in color and absolutely explodes with scents of exotic spices, incense, dried roses, cigar box and licorice, with a core of crème de cassis and dried cherries plus touches of black tea and dusty earth. Medium to full-bodied, it fills the mouth with rich, plushly textured fruit and then POW—it hits the mid-palate with an explosion of Chinese five spice and floral perfume sparks, leading to an epically long finish. This cannot fail to impress and can easily cellar for another 30 years or more.Robert Parker Wine Advocate | 100 RPAnother perfect wine is the 1998 Chateau Cheval Blanc, which is the usual blend of 55/45 Merlot and Cabernet Franc. Possessing an utterly captivating bouquet of sweet red and black fruits, forest floor, spice and dried flowers, it packs plenty of muscle and depth on the palate, yet is also expansive, elegant and seamless, with no hard edges. Just singing, with everything you could want; complexity, richness, elegance, depth, and length, drink this sensational beauty any time over the coming two decades. I’m sure it will keep longer, but why in the world would you wait.Jeb Dunnuck | 100 JDThe reference chateau of the vintage, this wine is showing its class here and then some. It was the first year with Bernard Arnault and Albert Frère as owners, with Pierre Lurton coming onboard from his former role at Clos Fourtet. 10% press wine was used, whereas today they use no press wine in the grand vin. It was aged in 100% new oak. The 36ha of vines yielded 32hl/ha, closer to their average than the relatively abundant 1989). The holdings have since expanded to 39ha with the addition of 3ha from Tour du Pin Figeac. 67% of production went in to the grand vin, the rest into Petit Cheval. This is seductive and rich but with a purity and precision. There’s more Merlot in the blend than is typical because the clay soils produced the best quality grapes, and you can see its impact in the textural density - the proximity to Pomerol comes through. Drinking Window 2019 - 2036Decanter | 100 DECAromas of blueberry, sweet tobacco, leather and pipe tobacco turning to raisins and Christmas cake. What a wine. Full-bodied, with chewy tannins and a very well-integrated palate. Dark color. A big and powerful wine still. Blockbuster. Massive. Just a baby.—’88/’98 Bordeaux blind retrospective (2008). Best after 2013. 8,330 cases made, 1,600 cases imported.Wine Spectator | 98 WSAromas of rose petal and hints of fresh herbs such currant leaf. Tobacco, too. Medium body, very fine tannins and a balanced fruit. Extremely refined and polished. A beautiful harmony. So lovely now.James Suckling | 96 JSThe 1998 Cheval Blanc has been a lauded wine ever since release. I have often, quite controversially felt that it never quite matched its startling performances in its first ten years, though it remains and excellent wine. Now at 20-years old it offers opulent, high-toned scents of maraschino cherry, iodine, crème de cassis, dried blood and a subtle, almost Provençal herb-like scent courtesy of the Cabernet Franc. The palate is medium-bodied with fine grip, showy compared to other vintages of Cheval Blanc with sappy red fruit and a fine structured that lends this 1998 focus. Perhaps this bottle did not quite deliver the intensity on the finish that I was expecting, "jogging" instead of "sprinting" over the finish line. That said, it is a very impressive wine, even if personally I would not put it amongst the very best wines that Pierre Lurton has overseen. Tasted at Cheval Blanc.Vinous Media | 95+ VMNo written review provided. | 95 W&S

A legendary wine, with reason. I have only tasted this once, at the home of a very kind friend, exactly as it should be drunk – over a dinner table, where it managed to stop the conversation. It is still young, just now starting to open up to reveal its dazzling array of black and blue fruits, black olives, truffles and well-defined tannins exerting an influence over the structure. The mineral slate side of Lafleur is now fully in its stride, tugging you back as you reach the end, keeping you hanging on for more. Drinking Window 2020 - 2050.Decanter | 100 DECAn utterly awesome wine, the only problem with the 2000 Lafleur is that I indicated its maturity window would be 2012-2040+. Based on two tastings of it, I would now argue 2020-2060+. Yes, it is that backward, but it has extraordinary potential. Dense ruby/purple to the rim, this fabulously concentrated wine has a sweet nose of kirsch liqueur intermixed with licorice and subtle floral notes as well as a hint of truffle in the background. It is stacked and packed on the attack, with a multi-dimensional mid-palate of unbelievable intensity of concentration and richness, yet at the same time all this power is allied to striking elegance, purity, and depth. This is great Bordeaux, a profound Lafleur, and in about ten years, much of its magic should begin to be unleashed. If you can find it, it is an extraordinary wine, and as expensive as it was a decade ago, it will look cheap compared to prices for more recent vintages.Robert Parker | 100 RPThe 2000 Lafleur is a monumental Pomerol that I have been fortunate to taste almost a dozen times over the years. Now reaching adulthood, it has a deep colour with very little maturity showing on the rim. The bouquet is quite profound, if still a little broody and backward, adorned with captivating scents of blackberry, raspberry, crushed stone, and struck flint tincture that I have remarked on previously. The palate is medium-bodied with damn near perfect line of acidity, utterly harmonious and frankly this is difficult to fault. Filigree tannin, just a subtle touch of spice, layers of pixelated black fruit with astonishing clarity on the finish – it delivers the complete package. This Lafleur has long been a standout of the 2000 vintage and it continues to cruise at altitude as it enters adulthood. Tasted at the Christies’ Lafleur masterclass in London.Vinous Media | 100 VMA hand-crafted, exciting wine. Solid as rock. Bright aromas of violets, berries, cherries and lilacs. Full-bodied, with a solid core of fruit and superbly refined, silky tannins. Long finish. This is a remake of the superb 1998. Much better than I found it in barrel. Best after 2013.Wine Spectator | 96 WS

The 2005 Ausone is a perfect wine of the vintage. It displays crushed rock, spring flowers, blueberry and blackberry fruit, a full-bodied mouthfeel, stunning purity and richness, and perfect harmony among all of its component parts (acidity, tannin, wood, alcohol and extract). Still youthful, but oh, so promising, this wine should be set aside for another decade and drunk over the following 50-75 years.Robert Parker | 100 RPI love the tobacco, berry, cigar box, toasty oak, ripe fruit and fresh mushroom flavors in this full-bodied red, which has ultralayered tannins and vanilla, new oak and berry character. Powerful and superconcentrated, with great length. This is a muscular, full-throttle wine, racing very, very fast. Best after 2019. 1,330 cases made.Wine Spectator | 100 WSDeep ruby-red. Penetrating aromas of cassis and minerals. The nose does not prepare one for this huge, improbably sweet, palate-saturating wine, whose pungent minerality and epic intensity makes it solid as a rock. The three-dimensional texture here is uncanny, and the wine’s explosive finishing flavors of dark berries, bitter chocolate and minerals persist for minutes. This must be one of the three or four greatest young Bordeaux I’ve ever tasted. The numbers here: 14.28% alcohol, 3.55 pH and an IPT between 80 and 85. This will go on for several decades, and I would not be at all surprised if it shut down in bottle for a very long time.Vinous Media | 98+ VMA superb wine that brings together all the qualities of this vintage. It has great fruit, layers of acidity, dark tannins and a velvety texture, without losing the sense of place that sets great Bordeaux apart.Wine Enthusiast | 98 WE

Extravagant and exotic, but still lively, this is a super-concentrated and elegant wine that’s already breathtaking, yet has enormous aging potential. Plenty of wet earth and mushroom character alongside the cassis and blackberry aromas. Super-long, perfectly balanced finish. Drink or hold. (Horizontal Tasting, London, 2019)James Suckling | 100 JSWhat a blockbuster effort! Atypically powerful, one day, the 2009 Haut-Brion may be considered to be the 21st century version of the 1959. It is an extraordinarily complex, concentrated effort made from a blend of 46% Merlot, 40% Cabernet Sauvignon and 14% Cabernet Franc with the highest alcohol ever achieved at this estate, 14.3%. Even richer than the perfect 1989, with similar technical numbers although slightly higher extract and alcohol, it offers up a sensational perfume of subtle burning embers, unsmoked cigar tobacco, charcoal, black raspberries, wet gravel, plums, figs and blueberries. There is so much going on in the aromatics that one almost hesitates to stop smelling it. However, when it hits the palate, it is hardly a letdown. This unctuously textured, full-bodied 2009 possesses low acidity along with stunning extract and remarkable clarity for a wine with a pH close to 4.0. The good news is that there are 10,500 cases of the 2009, one of the most compelling examples of Haut-Brion ever made. It requires a decade of cellaring and should last a half century or more. Readers who have loved the complexity of Haut-Brion should be prepared for a bigger, richer, more massive wine, but one that does not lose any of its prodigious aromatic attractions.Robert Parker | 100 RPInky purple in colour, this has a rich, intense nose of damson, blackberry and olive paste. The palate is generous in texture and weight, more broad-shouldered than Château Margaux - which is already beginning to show its florality. This is balanced but well built in every inch. The warmth of the vintage coming through as fruit ripeness, liquorice, spice and punch, with the beginnings of truffle notes. There’s no question of its excellence and its bonhomie. Drinking Window 2022 - 2044Decanter | 98 DECThis enormous young wine is among the most backward of the vintage at this early stage, with iron-clad grip holding the broad, deep core of blackberry, cassis and roasted fig notes in check for now. The finish is a torrent of dense, almost compressed layers of tobacco leaf, hot paving stone, singed bay leaf and tar that will take at least a decade to massage together fully. This one is for the kids born in 2009. Best from 2020 through 2040. 10,500 cases made.Wine Spectator | 98 WSThe 2009 Haut-Brion has a less precocious but more detailed bouquet, more nuanced perhaps with warm slates baking in the summer sun, tilled loam and cedar infusing the black fruit. The palate is medium-bodied with fine tannin, perfect acidity, layers of mineral-rich black fruit. This seems to have gained more complexity in recent years and is beginning to flirt with perfection. It’s not there yet, but it is moving in that direction. Tasted at BI Wines & Spirits’ Ten Year On tasting.Vinous Media | 97 VMSolid, very structured, packed with dense and dry tannins. There is a core of acidity and darkness that gives the wine a brooding, powerful character. At this stage, it seems austere although it does have the weight of fruit typical of the year.Wine Enthusiast | 96 WE(Château Haut Brion) I was rather surprised by the shape and style of the 2009 Haut Brion, which seemed to have at least dipped a toe in the water of the Luxury Wine camp in this vintage. Not a direction I would take if I were the Prince of Luxembourg and in charge of the greatest terroir in all of Bordeaux, but I am not the Prince of Luxembourg. The wine is less ripe than the 2009 La Mission, as it weighs in at a slightly less heady 14.3 percent in this vintage. The bouquet is deep, pure and beautiful, as it offers up a fine mélange of dark berries, cassis, espresso, plenty of soil tones, smoke and a very generous dollop of toasty new wood. On the palate the wine is deep, full-bodied, pure and intensely flavored, with a rock solid core of fruit, excellent focus and a fair bit of wood tannins still in need of absorption on the long, tannic finish. Today the wine is quite marked by the Taransaud component in its oak cocktail, which I have to believe is higher than the percentage used in the second wine. There is little doubt that this wine will eventually gobble up its oak tannins and smooth out a bit on the backend, but one has to ask why there is a need for so much new wood and why so much of it has to be so damn aggressive in its wood spice? These are not the aromatics or flavors of great, traditional Haut Brion, and lest we forget, this magical terroir is really where the entire Bordeaux world as we know it today once originated. Haut Brion’s historical legacy is so deep and wide that it needs take a backseat to no one on the Gironde, so let’s dial back the new wood next year and let this hauntingly mystical terroir once again become the focal point of the grand vin. Not that the 2009 Haut Brion is not a superb wine, but it so clearly could have been even better with a bit more of a traditional focal point. (Drink between 2020-2060)John Gilman | 91-93+ JG

One of the more flamboyant and sumptuous wines of the vintage, this inky/purple-colored St.-Julien reveals thrilling levels of opulence, richness and aromatic pleasures. A soaring bouquet of creme de cassis, charcoal, graphite and spring flowers is followed by a super-concentrated wine with silky tannins, stunning amounts of glycerin, a voluptuous, multilayered mouthfeel and nearly 14% natural alcohol. Displaying fabulous definition for such a big, plump, massive, concentrated effort, I suspect the tannin levels are high even though they are largely concealed by lavish amounts of fruit, glycerin and extract. Anticipated maturity: 2018-2040.Robert Parker | 100 RPThe greatest wine I’ve ever tasted from this address is the 2009 Léoville Poyferré, which is a step up over both the 2000 and the 2010. A blend of 60% Cabernet Sauvignon, 29% Merlot, 6% Petit Verdot and the balance Cabernet Franc that hit 13.9% alcohol, it offers everything you could ask of a wine and reveals a saturated purple color as well as incredible notes of crème de cassis, blueberries, lead pencil, exotic Spices, and dried flowers. Incredibly full-bodied, super concentrated, deep, and opulent, yet still pure, fresh, and lively, it has sweet tannin and a hedonistic vibe that hides its underlying structure. Drink it anytime over the coming three decades.Jeb Dunnuck | 100 JDBeautiful blueberries and blackberries with some blackcurrants and flowers on the nose. Some black olives and crushed stones, too. Full-bodied with creamy tannins and lovely depth. The tannins are so integrated and plush, but fine-grained. Persistent finish. A red that gives wonderful pleasure now, but will continue to do so for decades ahead.James Suckling | 97 JSThe 2009 Léoville Poyferré has an outstanding bouquet with blackberry, mint and cedar aromas, almost Pauillac in style, very dense and with plenty of horsepower. The palate is medium-bodied with fine, saturated tannins that frame layers of blackberry infused with graphite and white pepper. I love the symmetry and control of this Poyferré, in particular its persistent finish. This is a magnificent wine from Didier Cuvelier. Tasted at BI Wines & Spirits’ Ten Year On tasting.Vinous Media | 96 VMRich, exotic and generous, this is still young and firm but light on its feet, dancing through the palate. There’s lovely depth to the fruit, with a great silky texture. Those tannins bite in all the right places. Very good indeed. Drinking Window 2019 - 2040Decanter | 96 DECAn immensely structured wine, packed with dark tannins promising aging potential. It is complex, powerful, layered with new wood and concentration, finishing with dark plum fruits and acidity.Wine Enthusiast | 96 WESolid notes of steeped black currant, ganache-coated fig and plum eau de vie pump along in this very dark red, but with well-integrated structure. Long and winey through the finish, with the grip extending everything nicely. Best from 2016 through 2026. 17,665 cases made.Wine Spectator | 93 WS