2016 carruades de lafite, pauillac

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Bottle size (ML)

Why We're Buying

Carruades De Lafite is the second wine from Château Lafite Rothschild. While it shares characteristics with the grand vin, the red blend has a personality all its own. As the bridge between modern and traditional winemaking, Carruades De Lafite upholds the name and reputation of its estate.

Critics Scores

Robert Parker's Wine Advocate

A blend of 49 Merlot, 44 Cabernet Sauvignon, 5 Cabernet Franc and 2 Petit Verdot, the deep garnet-purple colored 2016 Carruades de Lafite opens with expressive baked plums, Morello cherries and blackcurrant cordial scents with touches of stewed tea, bay leaves and tilled soil plus a waft of tree bark. Medium-bodied with a great mid-palate core of red and black fruits, it has a solid, grainy frame and compelling freshness, finishing long and minerally.

Decanter

A little reserved - surprisingly so for Carruades at this stage - but then 2016 is an architectural vintage that's not overly generous when young. This is clearly built to last, with excellent quality, tight, well-polished tannins. It makes an impression and again shows what a successful vintage this is for second wines in Pauillac. 2 Petit Verdot completes the blend.

James Suckling

Sweet-tobacco and berry aromas here with fresh herbs, too. Full-bodied, dense and chewy with a savory edge, bright acidity and a long, flavorful finish. Iron and graphite at the finish with Indian ink. Second wine of Château Lafite Rothschild. Try after 2022.

Wine Enthusiast

This smoothly rich wine offers elegant tannins and spice as well as juicy acidity. With a good proportion of Merlot in the blend, the wine already shows great fruitiness as well as the intense freshness of the vintage. Drink this fine second wine of Lafite from 2023.

Jeb Dunnuck

While few people get excited about second wines, the reality today is that the top estates are making such a strict selection that their second wines are unquestionably equivalent to the grand vins of a few decades ago. Case in point: the 2016 Carruades de Lafite, a brilliant wine that stands up with the top wines in Pauillac. Offering a medium to full-bodied, seamless, incredibly pure style as well as classy black cherry fruits, graphite, licorice, and dried earth, it’s impeccably balanced, has no hard edges, and is already hard to resist. Drink it any time over the coming 20-25 years.