2022 Château Lafite Rothschild, Pauillac, Bordeaux

94% Cabernet Sauvignon, 5% Merlot, 1% Petit Verdot. 33 hl/ha. Cask sample.

Precise and long with sublimated force. It's a darker colour than usual. Deep and fathomless in terms of expression, dark fruit and graphite notes dominate. Impressive fruit on the palate, the tannins powerful but suave and fully integrated. Long life ahead.

Drink 2034 - 2055

A blend of 94% Cabernet Sauvignon, 5% Merlot and 1% Petit Verdot, the 2022 Lafite Rothschild unwinds in the glass with aromas of dark berries, cassis, sweet soils tones, cigar box and lilac. Medium to full-bodied, it's the most tensile of the first growths this year, with a layered, concentrated but youthfully introverted mid-palate, lively acids and a long, saline finish. It checks in at a rather high pH of 3.85, which belies its incisive profile, from a harvest that extended from August 31 to September 24.

The 2022 Lafite Rothschild is shaping up to be one of the wines of the vintage. All of the Lafite signatures are present, but what impresses me most about the 2022 is its poise and stature. Readers will find a regal, statuesque Lafite built for serious ageing. There’s tons of fruit and tannin, all masterfully put together. It’s a modern-day classic.

Saskia de Rothschild is one of the most forward-thinking proprietors of her generation. All the Bordeaux vineyards are now certified organic. Perhaps more important is her decision to pull out four hectares of vineyards at Lafite-Rothschild to plant them with other crops to promote biodiversity. As for the 2022s, they capture the best the vintage had to offer.

Drink 2032 - 2062

The 2022 Lafite-Rothschild was picked from 31 August to 24 September. Apart from the 94% Cabernet Sauvignon, there is 17.5% pressed wine in the blend. The IPT is slightly lower than 2020. This year, there is 13.6% alcohol, higher than 2018 and 2019.

It has an intense bouquet with blackberry, crushed stone, touches of pencil box, and undergrowth, which is very Lafite-Rothschild in style. The palate is medium-bodied with pliant tannins, perfectly judged acidity, linear and focused. Compared to vintages a couple of decades ago, there is mid-palate weight, yet it retains classicism and transparency while delivering quite a gentle but insistent grip on the finish. Perpetually the most deceptive of First Growth, one should not doubt its long-term potential.

Drink 2032 - 2075

The 2022 Château Lafite-Rothschild is based on 94% Cabernet Sauvignon, 5% Merlot, and 1% Petit Verdot that was harvested between the 31st of August and the 24th of September. It's a richer, more opulent wine compared to the more classic 2020 although the pH is higher in the 2020) and has a deep, full-bodied, concentrated profile as well as classic Lafite aromatics of spicy red and black fruits, freshly sharpened pencils, graphite, and tobacco.

Deep, rich, and concentrated, it nevertheless stays pure and flawlessly balanced, with ample, ripe tannins and a great finish. It's going to have some up-front appeal by Lafite standards but should still require a decade of bottle age. Director Eric Koher compares this to the 2005, but this modern-day clone of the 1959 is one of the most powerful, concentrated Lafites I've tasted.

17.5% of press wine, 3.85ph, 41% Lafite of overall production. Harvest August 31 to September 24, earliest since 1893. 100% new oak, Eric Kohler technical director. Potential upscore in bottle.

Saturated inky colour, with intense ruby reflections. This is a classically constructed Lafite, with clear power to the tannins and intense spice, a little more upfront and concentrated than you find in many En Primeur vintages at this property but it exemplifies balance and confidence. Fully in control, delivering estate signature with finesse and understatement, with pulses of graphite, slate, bitter almond and cocoa bean. Takes its time to uncurl in the glass, leaving you plenty of time to admire its architecture. Give it a good decade at least.

Drink 2032 - 2052

A classical Lafite that reminds me of something like the 1986, with its blackcurrant and tobacco character with cedar and hazelnut, but it's so today with its purity and precision. It's really about being Lafite here. Terroir gives great elegance with strength.