Château Lafite Rothschild 2017

Lisa Perrotti-Brown - The Wine Advocate
Point Score: 97+
Composed of 97% Cabernet Sauvignon, 2.5% Merlot and 0.5% Petit Verdot, the 2017 Lafite Rothschild is deep garnet-purple colored. It opens slowly, cautiously with restrained notes of chocolate-covered cherries, mulberries, warm blackcurrants and wild blueberries, followed by emerging notions of smoked meats, fragrant earth, crushed rocks and lilacs with touches of cast-iron pan and Marmite toast. Medium-bodied, the palate is deceptively light and quite ethereal on entry, growing in the mouth to reveal elegant layers of energetic red and black fruits with tons of savory accents. Framed by exquisitely ripe, wonderfully fine-grained tannins, it has exhilarating freshness and a very long, hypnotically perfumed finish. On a final note, the alcohol here is a jaw-dropping 12.5%, which is something of a miracle considering the ripeness of the Cabernet. A total head-turner, I cannot wait to follow the development of this wine!
Side Note:
After escaping the frosts with minimal damage, Lafite Rothschild's winemaker Eric Kohler commented, "Most of the rest of the vintage was excellent." He went on to confess, "Unfortunately, 10-20 September, we had some rains. This was toward the end of harvest. Harvest finished on 30th September. If we hadn't had the rains, the wines would have been more concentrated. But the slight dilution was great for balance." Then he mentioned what is the critical point here, that the grapes were ripe when the rains came. "If they weren't, things would have been difficult." As for the winemaking, "This year, what was important was maceration-the effect was spectacular in the mouth and the analysis. Sixteen percent of press wine was used this year-which is a high percentage!" Commenting on the very high percentage of Cabernet Sauvignon in the grand vin this year, he said, "When you have Cabernet Sauvignon of this level, you don't want to use anything else-it can look like the Merlot is already blended in. For us, I believe 2017 was even better than 2015." Kohler summarizes, "If I have one word for all the wines, it's 'harmony'." In fact, this 2017 Lafite is a bit atypical. It has more Cabernet Sauvignon than usual-the fourth-highest percentage ever, according to Kohler. The result is a beautifully ripe, elegantly expressed, incredibly pure expression of Cabernet. Stunning.

Decanter
Point Score: 97
Rich ruby in colour if a little less inky than the 2015, 2016 or 2018. Clear layers of fruit, the nose is one of the rare ones in the vintage where you want to spend time just thinking about the different strands that are coming at you. Black truffle, liquorice, cinnamon spice, saffron, slate and cigar box all comprise - this is a standout wine in the vintage. They just know how to tease flavour out of the ground at this place. Yes it is closed, not exactly forbidding but certainly austere, with big tannins, but less so than in some vintages at this stage, and it unrolls in the mouth.

James Suckling
Point Score: 97-98
This is very tight and tannic with lots of blackcurrant and sweet-tobacco character. Firm and powerful tannin texture sets this up for a long and chewy finish, yet it remains very compact and polished. It's a wine that possesses all the hallmarks of Lafite - everything from flavors to structure.