Smith Haut Lafitte 2014

This has a generous feel, with ripe fig, boysenberry and blueberry compote fruit flavors that are entwined with alluring roasted apple wood, melted licorice and warm fruitcake notes. The broad, mouthcoating finish has a terrific graphite underpinning to stay honest. Best from 2020 through 2035. 10,000 cases made.

The nose has a mix of fragrances mainly fresh black fruits. The start of the palate seems fresh with a strong bilberry character but it fills out in the middle rich fruit ripe tannins sweetness smooth and supple. 2023-30

The Smith red used to be overshadowed by the whte, but not any more. Deeply coloured and profound, this is an intensely aromatic blend, with sweet, perfumed oak, bold flavours, a supporting cast of acidity and fruit richness and the potential to age. Not far behind Haut-Brion in terms of quality, if not style.

Highly charged and fully aromatic on the nose. Bright and fresh, a lovely hit of acidity which gives the blueberries and black cherries lift with clear graphite and a wet stone minerality, licks of liquorice around the sides. It's a bit tight, not so soft and expansive, but with nice detail on show. Feels like they didn't push too hard and have delivered a really enjoyable glass of wine still with subtle power underneath and a long finish. You get the impression of a bit of heat and spice here which adds nuance and structure and suggests definite further ageing potential. Not weighty but flavourful. Drink 2024-2042.

The 2014 Smith-Haut-Lafitte has a fragrant mulberry and strawberry scented bouquet with cedar and subtle undergrowth scents emerging with time. There is something almost Musigny-like here (written as a complement incidentally—why not be compared to the greatest Burgundy Grand Cru?). The palate is medium-bodied with a soft and mellow opening. Quite spicy in the mouth with leather-tinged fruit on the open and inviting finish, there is something very approachable about this Smith-Haut-Lafitte, though like the 2014 Pape-Clement, it contains the substance to drink well over 10-15 years. Drink date 2020 - 2045

The Château Smith Haut Lafitte 2014 is a blend of 62% Cabernet Sauvignon, 30% Merlot, 6% Cabernet Franc and 2% Petit Verdot, cropped at 35 hectoliters per hectare that is matured in 65% new barrels. There is a strong and persuasive marine influence on the nose, suggestions of iodine and seaweed infusing the black fruit that is very well defined and nicely embroidered with the oak. The palate is medium-bodied with edgy, slightly chalky tannin; saline in the mouth and linear, focused, quite penetrating finish. In a similar fashion to the Haut-Bailly, this is a more "athletic" Smith Haut Lafitte, but one that allows the terroir to come through and be articulated. This is a stylish "S.H.L." from talented winemaker Fabien Teitgen.

This is a very muscular style of Smith Haut Lafitte with great bio-precision that equates to intense flavors and textures. Mineral, stone, blueberry and wet earth. Long, persistent and solid. A classic Bordeaux style yet rich and exact.