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 Vintage1983 Label 1 of 264 
TypeRed
ProducerChâteau Lafon-Rochet (web)
VarietyRed Bordeaux Blend
Designationn/a
Vineyardn/a
CountryFrance
RegionBordeaux
SubRegionMédoc
AppellationSt. Estèphe

Drinking Windows and Values
Drinking window: Drink between 2001 and 2012 (based on 5 user opinions)
Wine Market Journal quarterly auction price: See Lafon Rochet on the Wine Market Journal.

Community Tasting History

Community Tasting Notes (average 89.2 pts. and median of 90 pts. in 20 notes) - hiding notes with no text

 Tasted by PSPatrick on 12/24/2022 & rated 91 points: Medium to dark garnet colour. Mixed berries, cherry, tobacco, earth, mushroom, spices, cinnamon, and light balsamic notes, with medium-level acidity, and very good length. Notable old age sweetness. The tannin was sandpapery at first, but smoothed out with aeration, and the wine became sweet, smooth and balanced, with very good persistence. Mature, drink now. (681 views)
 Tasted by mattym19 on 12/11/2021 & rated 92 points: Decanted for about an hour; nose is classic Bordeaux: gravel path, forest floor in the fall, wild mushrooms but also holding on to some black berry bramble and fruit. Palate is still totally alive, great acidity, more secondary notes like tomato leaf but also underripe blackberry and a worn leather quality. Tannins are totally resolved, a fantastic wine for a 30-day dry-aged porterhouse. (934 views)
 Tasted by paulst on 9/15/2021 & rated 93 points: Soft blackberry; light mocha-coffee; smooth and balanced; nice integrated finish with cedar. (1343 views)
 Tasted by paulst on 9/1/2021 & rated 93 points: Light nose; mocha-berry; some earth; light and easy; soft and lean; light elegant finish. (1275 views)
 Tasted by paulst on 8/6/2021 & rated 91 points: Earthy mocha; soft tannin; crunchy and easy; soft smooth mocha - coffee finish. (1526 views)
 Tasted by paulst on 5/1/2021 & rated 90 points: Coffee and blackberry; mature; light; balanced; soft and lean; soft light elegant finish. (1102 views)
 Tasted by paulst on 8/26/2020 & rated 93 points: A sleeper; earthy tobacco blackberry nose; complex and layered; elegant; balanced; sweet blackberry finish. (912 views)
 Tasted by paulst on 6/24/2020 & rated 88 points: Wet cork; soft and linear with some blackberry. (806 views)
 Tasted by paulst on 5/31/2020 & rated 92 points: Light earthy coffee nose; concentrated; soft tannins; balanced but with acidity; nice smooth sweet long finish. (786 views)
 Tasted by paulst on 5/25/2019 & rated 91 points: Cedar nose; light earth and balance with lean blackberry; coarse; elegant finish. (1144 views)
 Tasted by sean7711 on 5/2/2019 & rated 86 points: Cork and bottle fill in good condition, but tired and past its prime. Always a pleasure to taste these old bottles! (1199 views)
 Tasted by vinero on 2/23/2018 & rated 90 points: Lucky bottle when reading all previous comments. Appearance of the wine ok, dark with only a slight brownish edge. Nose unfortunately corked, preventing a higher score. Palate miraculously untouched, strong, in balance and with a nice mix of primary and tertiary flavours. I wouldn’t buy again, but this was a nice surprise. (1232 views)
 Tasted by canan on 9/22/2017 & rated 86 points: Lovely aged wine with a little fruit left. Has developed nicely and are showing as a very classic wine. Nice, but have seen better days. (1470 views)
 Tasted by red_man on 10/29/2016 & rated 92 points: excellent long cork and good level for age, lowermost neck, colour still vibrant, only narrow brown rim, lovely nose that improves in the glass and with time in the decanter, powerful, concentrated and intense but still with "lift" and finesse, still very typical austere St Estephe character, now acid rather than tannin dominated palate, intense but of medium weight overall, very long lingering aftertaste, quite a positive surprise, considering pedigree (Lafon was not generally considered to be on form in this period), year and age really quite remarkable, maybe just a good bottle (1770 views)
 Tasted by Vino Me on 10/6/2011 & rated 83 points: Opend by Otis. 1983 was an average vintage on the left bank. I did not think this wine was showing well. It had very little fruit character and tasted thin. No off putting flavors though. 83 points. (3989 views)
 Tasted by AllRed on 8/27/2011 & rated 85 points: Pale ruby color. Tired red fruit notes on the bouquet. Not much left on the palate- a little thin red fruit and earth. (3891 views)
 Tasted by DavidKehler on 9/20/2010: This bottle was flawed. (3968 views)
 Tasted by otisabdul on 3/29/2008 & rated 85 points: Decidedly earthy, with very little fruit remaining. Some nice tobacco and dill notes, but certainly on the back nine of its life cycle. Drink up. (3958 views)
 Tasted by Zweder on 7/17/2003: No formal notes. Quite mature with still some mature cassis, but also a bit too much old age acidity. Still a lovely and mature wine, but certainly performed better some years ago. No score. (768 views)
 Tasted by Zweder on 5/31/1997 & rated 85 points: Not so many notes. Just that this is an ok wine, but not great. Now ready. (3574 views)

CellarTracker Wiki Articles (login to edit | view all articles)

Château Lafon-Rochet

Producer website – Read more about Chateau Lafon Rochet

Red Bordeaux Blend

Red Bordeaux is generally made from a blend of grapes. Permitted grapes are Cabernet Sauvignon, Cabernet Franc, Merlot, Petit Verdot, Malbec and rarely Carménère.Today Carménère is rarely used, with Château Clerc Milon, a fifth growth Bordeaux, being one of the few to still retain Carménère vines. As of July 2019, Bordeaux wineries authorized the use of four new red grapes to combat temperature increases in Bordeaux. These newly approved grapes are Marselan, Touriga Nacional, Castets, and Arinarnoa.

Wineries all over the world aspire to making wines in a Bordeaux style. In 1988, a group of American vintners formed The Meritage Association to identify wines made in this way. Although most Meritage wines come from California, there are members of the Meritage Association in 18 states and five other countries, including Argentina, Australia, Canada, Israel, and Mexico.

France

Vins de France (Office National Interprofessionnel des Vins ) | Pages Vins, Directory of French Winegrowers | French Wine (Wikipedia)

Wine Scholar Guild vintage ratings

2018 vintage: "marked by a wet spring, a superb summer and a good harvest"
2019 vintage reports
2021: "From a general standpoint, whether for white, rosé or red wines, 2021 is a year marked by quality in the Rhône Valley Vineyards. Structured, elegant, fresh and fruity will be the main keywords for this new vintage."
2022 harvest: idealwine.info | wine-searcher.com

Bordeaux

Bordeaux Wine Guide

Vins Bordeaux (Conseil Interprofessionnel du Vin de Bordeaux)

History of Bordeaux

History of 1855 Bordeaux Classification

"2009 is all about ripeness, with wines impressively packed with ripe fruit and high alcohol levels. They are showy, in-your-face, and full of pleasure. The 2010s have the fruit and alcohol levels of the 2009s, but with a compelling freshness on the finish that balances the fruit and provides a perfect sense of structure." - Ben Nelson

"2016 is a landmark vintage in certain spots of Bordeaux and it should be remembered as one of the most inspired campaigns of the last 40-50+ years." -Jon Rimmerman
"The quality of red Bordeaux in 2016 was universally lauded – although the response to the en primeur campaign was muted. Quantity was high too, with the equivalent of 770 million bottles of wine produced. An exceptionally dry summer with cool nights eventually, thanks to mid September rain, resulted in small, thick-skinned, ripe grapes, and the wines are marked by high tannin and acidity, with superb aromatic fragrance." - Jancis Robinson

"2017 was complicated, but there are some excellent wines. Expect plenty of freshness and drinkability from wines that will offer excellent value, and others that will rival 2016 in terms of ripeness and ageability. But they are likely to be the exception not the rule, making careful selection key." - Jane Anson

"In the past, a vintage such as 2022 may have been overripe, raisined and low in acidity but 2022 had a sneaky little reservoir in its back pocket - a near perfect marriage of cool/cold/rain the previous winter and the previous vintage that literally soaked the soils (a key to why 2022 is not 2003...or 1893)." - Jon Rimmerman

Médoc

Vins du Médoc (Conseil des Vins du Médoc) - Read More about the Medoc

VdB

The eight precisely defined appellations of the whole of the Médoc (from Blanquefort Brook to the north of the Bordeaux built-up area, almost to the Pointe de Grave) may claim the Médoc appellation. But there is also a specific territory in the north of the peninsula which produces exclusively wines with this appellation. In the great majority, the Médocs come from the north of the peninsula. The great individuality of this region is that the number of vines has increased more recently here than elsewhere, apart from a few isolated spots where vines have grown for many years. Today, the size of the small estate has brought about the development of a powerful co-operative movement. Four co-operatives out of five belong to the group called Unimédoc which ensures aging, bottling and marketing a large proportion of their wines.

St. Estèphe

Read more about St. Estephe and its wines Whereas the first activity recorded in Saint-Estèphe goes back as far as the Middle Bronze Age, the first vines date from the Roman Occupation. But it was the Bordeaux merchants who by aging and selling Saint-Estèphe wines themselves were largely responsible for this appellation's fame. And in the nineteenth century, noted for its prosperity, the great estates of today were created. The movement continues today with the merging of small estates.

A land of great wines, Saint-Estèphe is situated almost in the centre of the Médoc, close to the Gironde Estuary. The appellation is equidistant from Bordeaux and the Pointe de Grave.
The beds of soil are characterized by their remarkable diversity, the result of their undulating relief and excellent drainage. Quartz and well-rounded pebbles mingled with light, sandy surface soil are found everywhere, giving the wines a distinctive finesse. And the subsoil is made up of the famous Saint-Estèphe limestone, which outcrops on the west of the commune.

Tasting
Thanks to ideal conditions of climate and geology, Saint-Estèphe wines are characterized by their sturdy qualities and robust constitution. Accordingly, they can be laid down for a very long time while yet preserving their youth and freshness. Distinguished by a subsoil which is more clayey than that in the other communal appellations which lie by the river, the wine here attains a distinctive individuality : a very rich tannic structure, a fine deep red colour and an exceptional backbone with aromas of great finesse.

Production conditions (Decree dated September 11, 1936):

In order to have the right to the Saint-Estèphe appellation of controlled origin, red wines must:
- come from the communes of Saint-Estèphe, "excluding any parcels in that area which are situated on recent alluvium and sand on impermeable subsoils",
- satisfy precise production conditions : grape-varieties (Cabernet-Sauvignon, Cabernet-Franc, Carmenère, Merlot Noir, Petit Verdot, Cot or Malbec), minimum of sugar (178 grammes - 6.27 oz. - per litre of must) degree (an acquired 10°5) base yield (45 hectolitres per hectare).

 
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