Smith Haut Lafitte Rouge - Pessac-Léognan 2019

Jeb DUNNUCK

98 / 100

par Jeb Dunnuck le 12/04/2022

Reminding me a little of the 2009, the 2019 Château Smith Haut Lafitte has a rich, powerful style in its cassis, blueberry, and black raspberry fruit as well as its chalky minerality, smoked earth, tobacco, and lead pencil shaving-like aromas and flavors. A blend of 59% Cabernet Sauvignon, 36% Merlot, 4% Cabernet Franc, and the rest Petit Verdot, this rich, unctuously textured beauty has terrific concentration, sweet tannins, and the vintage's hallmark elegance and finesse. One of the most concentrated, powerful wines in the vintage, it needs 4-5 years of bottle age (or a healthy decant) and will evolve for 30+ years if stored properly. Not enough can be said about what proprietors Daniel and Florence Cathiard, as well as winemaker Fabien Teitgen, continue to achieve at this estate.

Wine Advocate

96 / 100

par William Kelley le 07/04/2022

The 2019 Smith Haut Lafitte has turned out very well indeed, unwinding in the glass with a complex bouquet of dark berries, cassis, forest floor, pencil shavings, licorice and spices. Full-bodied, broad and velvety, it's layered and elegantly muscular, underpinned by rich structuring tannins and lively acids, and it concludes with a long, expansive finish. This is another estate where the viticultural and stylistic evolutions of the last decade have delivered a beautifully balanced, harmonious 2019.

Vinous

96 / 100

par Antonio Galloni le 28/02/2022

The 2019 Smith Haut Lafitte is a dense, explosive wine. Super-ripe dark cherry, plum, mocha, new leather and licorice all saturate the palate in a wine that balances unctuous texture and structure. The 2019 is an opulent Smith Haut Lafitte that is going to need a few years to shed some baby fat. It is a powerhouse to be sure. Dried herbs, leather, tobacco, incense and graphite lend striking savory nuance throughout.

Vinous

96 / 100

par Antonio Galloni le 24/02/2022

The 2019 Smith Haut Lafitte is a dense, explosive wine. Super-ripe dark cherry, plum, mocha, new leather and licorice all saturate the palate in a wine that balances unctuous texture and structure. The 2019 is an opulent Smith Haut Lafitte that is going to need a few years to shed some baby fat. It is a powerhouse to be sure. Dried herbs, leather, tobacco, incense and graphite lend striking savory nuance throughout.

Vinous

97 / 100

par Neal Martin le 17/02/2022

The 2019 Smith Haut-Lafitte blossoms immediately on the nose of seductive blackberry, black olive and Bing cherries, perhaps a little more floral than when I tasted it from barrel, and there is a nearly Burgundy-like purity. The palate is medium-bodied with a smooth, almost creamy entry. This is very harmonious, elegant and poised, leading to a mineral-driven finish. A gorgeous, seductive Smith Haut Lafitte that will give three or four decades of drinking pleasure.

Wine Advocate

96-98 / 100

par Lisa Perrotti-Brown le 15/07/2020

The blend this year is 59% Cabernet Sauvignon, 36% Merlot, 4% Cabernet Franc and 1% Petit Verdot, harvested from the 17th of September to the 10th of October. The wine is aging in French oak barriques, 60% new. Deep garnet-purple colored, the 2019 Smith Haut Lafitte is downright hedonic on the nose, rolling sensuously out of the glass with notions of warm cassis, chocolate-covered cherries, Black Forest cake and black raspberries with nuances of cinnamon toast, lilacs, camphor and iron ore. Medium to full-bodied, the palate juxtaposes remarkable energy and brightness with densely packed, rich, ripe black fruits, framed by wonderfully ripe, finely grained tannins and fantastically invigorating freshness, finishing long with mineral-tinged fireworks. Stunning!

WeinWisser

18,5 / 20

le 07/07/2020

Bettane & Desseauve

96-97 / 100

par Bettane & Desseauve le 03/07/2020

18-18,5

Vinous

94-96 / 100

par Antonio Galloni le 18/06/2020

The 2019 Smith Haut Lafitte soars out of the glass with regal intensity and stature. A wine of depth and textural resonance, the 2019 has a lot to offer. Naturally, today the 2019 is about potential more than anything else, and yet all the elements are so impeccably balanced. Dark and racy, with real energy, the 2019 is impressive. Lavender, mint and sage linger on the persistent finish.

Jeb DUNNUCK

95-97 / 100

par Jeb Dunnuck le 18/06/2020

95-97+ The grand vin 2019 Château Smith Haut Lafitte comes from the heart of the Léognan region and beautiful, gravelly soils. Deeply hued, it's a slightly fresher, more structured wine and has beautiful crème de cassis and almost hints of blue fruits as well as classic Graves gravelly, damp earth, unsmoked tobacco, graphite, and spice. Beautifully done, with full-bodied richness, a great mid-palate, and both vibrant acidity and ripe tannins, it's going to need a solid 7-8 years of bottle age but will be a classic, world-class expression of this terroir.

Vinous

96-98 / 100

par Neal Martin le 16/06/2020

The 2019 Smith Haut-Lafitte was cropped at 36hl/ha, undergoing manual pigeage and maturation in 60% new barrels for a planned 18 months. It has an intense, very pure bouquet with blackberry, briary and cherry compote and a hint of black olive tapenade in the background. The palate is medium-bodied with fine grain tannins that frame the pure, mineral-infused black fruit. Undercurrents of graphite and black olive surface towards the complex finish that I feel is less opulent but maybe more sophisticated than recent vintages of this top performer. Very elegant and refined, this is an outstanding success for winemaker Fabien Teitgen and his team. Tasted twice including samples direct from the château.

The Wine Cellar Insider

96-98 / 100

par Jeff Leve le 10/06/2020

Quite deep in color, the initial nuances of chocolate mint, flowers, spice, incense, espresso and smoky red fruits fills your nose and glass. On the palate, the wine is fleshy, seductive, soft and loaded with dark sweet fruits. Expansive, silky and long, the layers of sweet fruits linger in the finish. The fruit shows a beautiful purity and sensuous quality in the fruits. The wine was made from a blend of 59% Cabernet Sauvignon, 36% Merlot, 4% Cabernet Franc and 1% Petit Verdot, reaching 14.2% alcohol with a pH of 3.7. The harvest took place September 23 through October 10. Yields were 38 hectoliters per hectare with the grand vin produced from only 40% of the harvest. 96-98 Pts

Jamessuckling.com

96-97 / 100

par James Suckling le 04/06/2020

This is a solid red with a compact, tight palate of black fruit and currants, as well as very pretty, powerful yet polished tannins. This shows finesse with structure.

The World of Fine Wines

92-94 / 100

par Michael Schuster le 13/05/2020

Dense, sweet Cabernet-cassis and gentle gravel background, subtle and persistent; full-bodied, nicely concentrated, fresh in acidity, very fine in tannin; despite its ample alcohol, the impressions here are elegant, restrained, classically Graves in proportions; freshly ripe in flavor, aromatic and refined, nothing ''strong'' or particularly concentrated, and with a pure, refined and very Graves character; long to taste, clearly marked by its gravel aromas, finishing with an appetizing freshness and a very nice, fruit-cored length. A lovely, mezzo-forte rendering, not grand, but complete and very good. Its overall fineness of tannin texture is likely to make it accessible relatively early.