2023

Carruades de Lafite

Pauillac AOP, Impériale

Zweitwein von Chateau Lafite

Mit ihrem Zweitwein Carruades de Lafite macht sich die Premier-Grand-Cru-Legende Lafite-Rothschild seit vielen Jahren mächtig selbst Konkurrenz. Die Balance zwischen Cabernet Sauvignon und Merlot würdigen Kenner als in spielerischer Perfektion gelungen. Saskia de Rothschild herrscht in Pauillac als Vertreterin der französischen Rothschild-Linie über 103 Hektar bewirtschaftete Rebflächen. Superlative!

PRESSE

95-96 Punkte James Suckling
A savory and juicy Carruades with softness and notes of ripe berry, cedar and dried tobacco. Like Lafite from the 1980s but more precise. Round and pretty. It really grows on the finish with such sweetness of fruit and length. Pointed, fine tannins at the end. Very long. A blend of 60% cabernet sauvignon and 40% merlot.

91-93 Punkte Robert Parker's Wine Advocate (William Kelley)
A blend of 60% Cabernet Sauvignon and 40% Merlot, the 2023 Carruades de Lafite is lovely, bursting with aromas of minty blackberries, cassis and cigar box, followed by a medium to full-bodied, fleshy and layered palate that's creamy and textural, its generous core of fruit largely concealing its powdery structuring tannins, concluding with a long, resonant finish. 
Today, Château Lafite Rothschild amounts to some 110 hectares planted to some 900,000 vines (including 4.5 hectares of Cabernet Sauvignon in Saint-Estèphe). If that figure strikes readers as smaller than it used to be, that's because Lafite has ripped up some less optimally situated plots that never tended to produce wine fit for inclusion in the grand vin. As of 2021, what's more, organic conversion is underway (15 hectares are already farmed biodynamically); and hedges and flowering borders, planted with native species, now begin to break up the monoculture of the vine. Cover crops, too, have been added to the viticultural team's agronomic arsenal and are delivering good results in parcels with more humid or clay-rich soils. In the winery, Lafite is meticulously traditional—the grapes are sorted twice, once optically, and see a classical maceration in wooden and cement tanks with pump-overs and some use of the "air pulse" system that disrupts the cap and oxygenates the ferment without the need for a full pump-over. Malolactic fermentation, as ever, is in tank, and the wine matures in barrels that are mostly produced in-house, with a light toast, favoring the forests of Allier and Nevers. Each vintage is racked three times, traditionally, with one egg white fining (which requires up to 8,000 eggs). As is the case almost everywhere in the Médoc, the tendency is for less and less Merlot in the assemblage.

95 Punkte Falstaff (Peter Moser)
Dunkles Rubingranat, opaker Kern, violette Reflexe, zarte Randaufhellung. Zarte Kräuterwürze, reife Kirschfrucht. Stoffig, reife rote Frucht, elegant, straffe, integrierte Tannine, mineralisch-salzig im Abgang, bleibt gut haften, zitroniger Touch, ein finessenreicher Speisenbegleiter, dynamisch, frisch und delikat im Nachhall.

91-93 Punkte Vinous (Neal Martin)
The 2023 Carruades de Lafite is notable for some of the Cabernet being picked prior to the Merlot, between September 7 and 29. This year, there is no Cabernet Franc or Petit Verdot in the blend. It has a far superior bouquet to some of the vintages I was tasting a decade or so ago—much more purity and precision, with notes of black plum, wild strawberry and a touch of cassis. The palate is medium-bodied with a silky texture and a crisp line of acidity. It’s fresh, precise and saline, with a long tail on the finish. This is surely one of the best Carruades I have tasted at this stage.