2019 Carruades de Lafite

Tasted blind. Warm, intense nose. Neat and aromatic and pretty. Really nice wine, even if not the most concentrated or longest-lived. (JR)

The 2019 Carruades de Lafite tastes like a mini-Lafite, offering beautiful currant, tobacco, cedar pencil, and spicy nuances in a medium-bodied, pure, elegant package. Based on 68% Cabernet Sauvignon, 27% Merlot, and 5% Cabernet Franc (which is a very high percentage of Cabernet Sauvignon), this seamless 2019 has remarkable purity and precision, as well as length. It tastes more like a Grand Vin than a second wine.

The 2019 Carruades de Lafite is rich and expansive, bursting with aromas of ripe berries, violets, spice box, cedar and cassis. Medium to full-bodied, ample and fleshy, it's broad and generous, with a more exotic, extravagant profile than the grand vin but also levels of concentration and character that exceed what was the case a decade ago. In recent years, Lafite has actually ripped up parcels that routinely never made it into the grand vin—and the grand vin now includes more and more Cabernet Sauvignon. Even if Carruades now contains less Merlot than was historically the case (27% in 2019), I suspect it's benefiting from the inclusion of Merlot that would have formerly made it into the assemblage of Lafite itself.