2008 Château Smith Haut Lafitte
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Tasting notes
Dark garnet and attractively mellow on the nose with a suggestion of mint but none of underripeness. The tannins are there but are not insistent and there's an attractive velvetiness of texture with some freshness too. Long. Very classic middle-ground (not too ripe and not too skinny) claret. (JR)
Critic scores
Wine Spectator
Robert Parker
More reviews and scores
The 2008 Château Smith-Haut-Lafitte is still going strong and is a classic wine from this reference point estate in the Graves region. A blend of 60% Cabernet Sauvignon, 32% Merlot, 7% Cabernet Franc and the rest Petit Verdot aged in 80% new barrels, it offers textbook notes of crème de cassis, cedar pencil, loamy earth, and smoked earth/cold fireplace. Concentrated, ripe, and sexy on the palate, with ripe tannins, it shows the straight, focused style of the vintage. Drink it any time over the coming 10-15 years.
Tasted blind. Dark crimson. Grainy and burly with good structure and still quite a lot of tannin. Not that long. But with lots of charm. (JR)
About the producer
Ch. Smith Haut Lafitte is one of the leading lights of Pessac-Léognan today – all thanks to Daniel and Florence Cathiard, who took over the property in 1990 and have since transformed the estate, converting to biodynamics and crafting wines of increasing finesse.