2018 carruades de lafite, pauillac

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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

The 2018 Carruades de Lafite is composed of 56.5 Cabernet Sauvignon, 38 Merlot and 5.5 Cabernet Franc. The Merlot was harvested September 17-24, the Cabernet Sauvignon was harvested September 25 to October 5, and the Cabernet Franc was harvested September 24. Deep garnet-purple colored, it reveals a very serious nose of pencil shavings, black tea, violets and dark chocolate with earthy wafts of underbrush and mossy bark over a core of warm cassis, blackberry preserves and black raspberries. Medium to full-bodied, the densely packed, black-fruited palate is laced with loads of compelling mineral sparks with a firm, grainy frame and beautiful freshness to lift the long, earthy finish

Jeb Dunnuck

The second wine of Lafite is the 2018 Carruades De Lafite (56.5 Cabernet Sauvignon, 38 Merlot, and the rest Cabernet Franc). This ruby/purple colored effort offers classic Lafite elegance and purity as well as lead pencil, red and black currants, and tobacco. Elegant, silky, ultra-fine and beautifully balanced, with ripe tannins, it's a smoking second wine that’s going to keep for 2-3 decades.

Decanter

This has rich fruit notes with exotic spices, a silky texture and a seductive approachability that clearly translates the higher than usual amount of Merlot in the blend this year, as with Petit Mouton. It’s a wine that is bound to make a lot of people happy but also means that whereas Lafite is archetypal Lafite, this is perhaps a less classic Carruades. It still has the tannins of Pauillac, and as so often is the case this year the first time you taste feels easy then they steal up on you and start to layer but this is flexible and approachable, with a menthol finish.

James Suckling

This is an extremely fine-grained Carraudes with a complex character of chocolate, walnut, cedar and a hint of graphite. Medium-to full-bodied, tight and chewy but, at the same time, agile and light. Savory finish. Special