Chateau Lafon-Rochet 2020
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Product Details
Your Rating
Somm Note
Winemaker Notes
Blend: 61% Cabernet Sauvignon, 33% Merlot, 3% Cabernet Franc, 3% Petit Verdot
Professional Ratings
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Vinous
The 2020 Lafon-Rochet represents the essence of classicism in Bordeaux. Medium in body and finely-cut, Lafon-Rochet is one of the classiest, more refined Saint-Estèphes readers will come across. Dark fruit, earthiness, lavender, licorice, menthol and cloves add nuance, but it is the wine's balance and vibrancy that impress most. Give the tannins a few years to melt away. Superb. Best after 2030.
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Wine Enthusiast
Richly structured, powered by dark tannins and rich blackberry fruits, this estate has produced a very fine wine this vintage. The structure is considerable while keeping fruitiness and fine acidity in focus. The wine will certainly age well.
Barrel Sample: 93-95 -
Decanter
Crafted by former owner Basile Tesseron, the wine has a pleasingly silky, polished and smooth aspect, reflecting irresistible Cabernet-driven graphite and bright red and black fruit. Sheer pleasure! What I like most is the ripe polish without the modern gloss. Enjoy with baked aubergine or roast chicken.
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Jeb Dunnuck
Showing the pretty, elegant style of the vintage, the 2020 Chateau Lafon-Rochet exbibits a ruby/purple hue to go with a perfumed bouquet of ripe black cherries, spring flowers, graphite, and violets. Medium-bodied and elegant, with firm tannins, it needs 4-6 years of bottle age and should evolve for two decades in cold cellars. Best After 2027.
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James Suckling
Subtle dried spices and berries with chocolate undertones. It’s medium-bodied with fine tannins and a savory finish. Fresh and bright. From organically grown grapes.
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
The 2020 Lafon-Rochet opens in the glass with aromas of cassis, plums and licorice, followed by a medium to full-bodied, deep palate with good concentration, lively acids and plenty of powdery structuring tannin that asserts itself on the finish. This, too, is more structured than its 2019 counterpart and will require a bit of patience. Best after 2025. Rating: 91+
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Wine Spectator
Plump and open, with a burst of loganberry and mulberry fruit backed by light tobacco, warm earth and savory notes. Shows a savory edge, which moves to the lead on the finish. Solid. Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, Cabernet Franc and Petit Verdot. Drink now through 2034.
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The chateau is in a choice location, in one of the most prestigious winegrowing areas in the world – between Cos d'Estoumel and Lafite-Rothschild (to the south). It is thus hardly surprising that Guy Tesseron, famous for the quality of his old Cognac, was attracted to Lafon-Rochet some 40 years ago.
After acquiring the estate, he decided that the existing cellar was unworthy of such a fine wine, and had it razed. He built an entirely new one and, in a highly unusual move, built a new chateau as well, in the style of the 17th century chartreuse manor house. Thanks to the great care and attention lavished on Lafon-Rochet, it has become one of the standard bearers of the great wines of Saint-Estèphe in France and around the world.
One of the world’s most classic and popular styles of red wine, Bordeaux-inspired blends have spread from their homeland in France to nearly every corner of the New World. Typically based on either Cabernet Sauvignon or Merlot and supported by Cabernet Franc, Malbec and Petit Verdot, the best of these are densely hued, fragrant, full of fruit and boast a structure that begs for cellar time. Somm Secret—Blends from Bordeaux are generally earthier compared to those from the New World, which tend to be fruit-dominant.
Deeply colored, concentrated, and distinctive, St. Estephe is the go-to for great, age-worthy and reliable Bordeaux reds. Separated from Pauillac merely by a stream, St. Estephe is the farthest northwest of the highest classed villages of the Haut Medoc and is therefore subject to the most intense maritime influence of the Atlantic.
St. Estephe soils are rich in gravel like all of the best sites of the Haut Medoc but here the formation of gravel over clay creates a cooler atmosphere for its vines compared to those in the villages farther downstream. This results in delayed ripening and wines with higher acidity compared to the other villages.
While they can seem a bit austere when young, St. Estephe reds prove to live very long in the cellar. Traitionally dominated by Cabernet Sauvignon, many producers now add a significant proportion of Merlot to the blend, which will soften any sharp edges of the more tannic, Cabernet.
The St. Estephe village contains two second growths, Chateau Montrose and Cos d’Estournel.