Château Smith Haut Lafitte Rouge, Pessac-Leognan, Cru Classé 2019

Château Smith Haut Lafitte Rouge, Pessac-Leognan, Cru Classé 2019

Expert tasting note: (2019 vintage)

"Deep, dark, virtually opaque ruby-red. Lively, ripe, red fruit & bursting black-fruit aromas. The palate has both juicy red-fruit and concentrated black-fruits. There is brilliant acidity & an excellent structure that is quite tight, showing a little cedar. Lovely balance & length." - 6/20 DCAMW

Jane Anson - Inside Bordeaux (99/100)

Sink into this concentrated, textured, creamy wine, full of liqourice, blueberry, cassis and black cherry fruits, then let the pencil lead, cigar box and campfire notes spiral upwards out of the glass as it opens. Clearly shows why the signature acidity of Bordeaux, even in the best vintages, is just so welcome – it gives focus and a taut, confident feel through the core of the wine, and clearly suggests how well it will age. 60% new oak. Tasted in September last year, same impression of an exceptional wine. In organic conversion, Fabien Teitgen technical director, harvest from September 17 for the reds.

Robert Parker The Wine Advocate (96/100)

The 2019 Smith Haut Lafitte has turned out very well indeed, unwinding in the glass with a complex bouquet of dark berries, cassis, forest floor, pencil shavings, licorice and spices. Full-bodied, broad and velvety, it's layered and elegantly muscular, underpinned by rich structuring tannins and lively acids, and it concludes with a long, expansive finish. This is another estate where the viticultural and stylistic evolutions of the last decade have delivered a beautifully balanced, harmonious 2019.

Certified organic with the 2019 vintage, this year marks a waypoint—rather than a stopping point—in Smith Haut Lafitte's agronomic journey. The Cathiard family banished herbicides at this address in 1991, radically reducing chemical treatments and suffering the consequences for several years in the form of much diminished yields (today, happily, materiel and techniques are more sophisticated). In addition to organic methods, cover crops have been deployed on the vineyard's central blocks and western band, where soils are less well drained. Hedges have been planted to encourage biodiversity, and ultraviolet treatments are being trialed as an alternative to copper sulfate. In addition to such initiatives, the technical team is adapting to a warmer climate: that means picking a touch earlier, certainly, but more importantly, adapting in the vineyards, with somewhat lower canopies and an end to deleafing to retain fresh, vibrant flavors. Winemaking, too, is a little gentler: cool but protracted macerations, with periodic punch-downs, for reds and whole-cluster pressing with an inerted press for whites. This has brought new structural elegance and energy to the estate's wines. It surely helps that as much as possible is done in-house: since 1995, the Cathiards have their own nursery for their own massale selections, in partnership with Bérillon, and barrels are made in the château's own on-site cooperage too, favoring the forests of Tronçais and Jupilles for reds, Loches (which brings tension) for whites. All this is symptomatic of the attention to detail and seriousness that the Cathiards, and their technical director Fabien Teitgen, have brought to this estate; and the result, in 2019, is one of the finest wines they've produced to date.
- Reviewed by: William Kelley