2024 Smith Haut Lafitte
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Tasting Notes
The nose of Smith Haut Lafitte’s 2024 red is ripe and dark-fruited, with the sweetness of oak and floral lifts. There’s good density to the dark, concentrated palate, layered with cherry fruit and a twist of crunchy redcurrant. There’s a line of graphite and crushed-rock minerality. Pure and impressive, their tiny yields paid off (22hl/ha). Aged in 60% new oak, 13.2% alcohol, 3.6pH. Blend: 67% Cabernet Sauvignon, 27% Merlot, 5% Cabernet Franc, 1% Petit Verdot
Critic Scores
Average Score
Jane Anson, Inside Bordeaux
Antonio Galloni, Vinous
More reviews and scores
Toasted cedar and sandalwood oak on the nose, the team as Smith Haut-Lafitte has done a lovely job of adding a gourmet lick of grilled blueberry and raspberry fruits to the opening moments of the wine, alongside richer damson and black cherry in the mid-palate. Great energy, lift and juice, vivid fruits, graphite, ink, chalk tannins, slimmer through the mid palate than in the bigger vintages, but everything in its place. 21hl/h yield, 60% new oak. Fabien Teitgen technical director.
The 2024 Smith Haut Lafitte is raw and not fully formed. Today the tannins are imposing. There's good energy and depth in the glass, but the 2024 is very backward. Floral and spice notes emerge with air, but for the time being, Smith Haut Lafitte is a bit of a mystery.
Notes of spices, oak, dark berries and gentian preface the 2024 Smith Haut Lafitte, a medium-bodied, firm and structured wine with an assertive tannic frame that leads to a compact, gentian-inflected finish. This blend of 67% Cabernet Sauvignon, 27% Merlot, 5% Cabernet Franc and 1% Petit Verdot, matured in 60% new oak, is somewhat introverted and linear, making it a chewy Smith Haut Lafitte that will need time to unwind.
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.