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Red

1959 Château Lafite Rothschild

Red Bordeaux Blend

  • France
  • Bordeaux
  • Médoc
  • Pauillac
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CT95.7 113 reviews
1959
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N.V.
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Label borrowed from 1960
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Label borrowed from 1961
1961

Community Tasting Notes 110

  • joshabramson Likes this wine: 97 points

    April 8, 2024 - Super fresh, structure very much still in tact, with delicate and pretty fruit. I only had a small taste from this bottle, but it was very fine.

  • sdr Likes this wine: 94 points

    January 27, 2024 - Whole Lotta Lafite; 1/26/2024-1/27/2024 (Wine Watch, Ft. Lauderdale, Florida): Fabulous mature Lafite from one of its most successful old vintages - but only for about 20 minutes. Beautiful Lafite fragrance of berry and dried flowers. Remarkably full and rich mid palate. Black and red fruit, beautiful structure and balance with just the right acidity and melted tannins. Unfortunately became less clean and lost focus after a while, but the first 20 minutes were a 97 point experience.

  • Ozen Likes this wine: 100 points

    January 2, 2024 - Lafite Rothschild 1959, a privilege. A truly remarkably good bottle despite the ullage due to its age (it makes you wonder how it can still be perfect with that much air). Very promising: the cork is fully in tact while soaked, but clearly a champion league cork for fulfilling its duty for the full 65 years. Impressive.
    Always concerned how long a wine of this age will hold after opening, I poured the first glass right after the cork extracting (no popping here). First impression: slight signs of age in the bouquet. So even more amazing to see that it actually took a few minutes for this legend to fully come to life. We are talking minutes here of course. But to have to have a 65 year old wine benefit from breathing is quite amazing. But then it did open up in a majestic way.

    A deep sensational, utterly rich and beautiful elixer. One of the very best bottles so far. Super intense, super rich, wonderfully concentrated, deep orangey flavours, while deeply aristocratic, velvet, so vivid, full of life in its own royal way. It does make me realize its a privilege to experience Lafite 1959. This wine justifies the use of many superlatives. All these words are useless, as a description can't do justice to an experience like this, only the actual experience can. The aftertaste literally lingers for minutes... after the wine has left, its presence is soaring.... if not taking residence in your palet. It's aftertaste is that long.

    Truly legendary

  • misterstarre Likes this wine: 97 points

    December 31, 2023 - This Lafite was not nearly as loud as the vintage, known for its robust and ripe fruit. Its beauty was obvious, but delicate and restrained. It's allure, soft-spoken and effortless. The sensuality of this wine was natural. It's texture was like the smoke from an extinguished candle. It built on itself with each sniff and sip. This has such an elegance.

    This wine aged marvellously. My half-bottle (yes, half-bottle) was initially tired for about ten minutes with muted fruit, but no unpleasant cellar funk or surripe anything. Ten minutes later, it was awake. On the nose, this offers hay, fresh tobacco, dark red and black berries, currant, cigar box, and mild spice. The tannins stiffened up a bit and the wine stood upright for the rest of the night, gaining some freshness. Along with the notes from the nose coming through on the palate, there was a touch of game. Dark red color with violet highlights and decent clarity. The nose was arguably the best part. The nose had impact. I drank from a standard glass, but it may as well have been whole cluster pinot from a large-bowled glass. Damn. It was -- much to my pleasure -- the only exuberant element of this wine. The nose showed the personality of a fully expressive wine at peak. The palate had less power, but echoed its complexities while adding notes of charcoal in the back end and finish.

    Compared with other 59s, 61s, and 66s I've had, this was the most solid, stable, "middle-aged" of the bunch. It's nowhere near the molasses, pine, and soy sauce notes Bordeaux tends to pick up in geriatrics. This honestly tasted, in terms of style and nearly in terms of age, like a 1990. I'm exaggerating a little, but it feels like there's lots of development ahead, and more tertiary flavors yet to emerge.

  • Quiet Lion Likes this wine: 94 points

    November 10, 2023 - From 375, decanted briefly. Stellar showing! I was concerned this would fall apart quickly but it actually kept improving over the half-hour we shared this legendary birthday wine. Still sending me her valentine, I guess.

1 - 5 of 110 More notes

Pro Reviews 17

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Vinous

  • By Neal Martin
    Cleaning Out the Cupboard: Bordeaux 1943-2020 (Jan 2023), 1/1/2023 (link)

    (Lafite-Rothschild Lafite-Rothschild Red) Subscribe to see review text.

  • By Neal Martin
    The Year of Jazz & Wine: 1959 (Nov 2020), 11/1/2020 (link)

    (Lafite-Rothschild Lafite-Rothschild (Magnum) Red) Subscribe to see review text.

JebDunnuck.com

  • By Jeb Dunnuck
    Up From The Cellar #8 & Misc New Releases, 2/13/2020 (link)

    (Chateau Lafite-Rothschild) Subscribe to see review text.

Vinous

  • By Neal Martin
    Bordeaux In Excelsis (Jun 2018), 6/18/2018 (link)

    (Lafite-rothschild Lafite-rothschild Red) Subscribe to see review text.

JancisRobinson.com

  • By Jancis Robinson, MW
    5/24/2018 (link)

    (Ch Lafite Pauillac Red) Subscribe to see review text.

Decanter

  • By Jane Anson
    Lafite 150th birthday, 5/23/2018 (link)

    (Château Lafite Rothschild, Pauillac, Bordeaux, France, Red) Subscribe to see review text.

View From the Cellar

  • By John Gilman
    Mar/Apr 2017, Issue #68, The Beautifully Ripe 1959 Bordeaux Vintage

    (Château Lafite-Rothschild) Subscribe to see review text.

Vintage Tastings

  • By John Kapon
    New York Strikes Back, 2/2/2012

    (Lafite Rothschild) Subscribe to see review text.

JancisRobinson.com

  • By Jancis Robinson, MW
    12/15/2009 (link)

    (Ch Lafite Pauillac Red) Subscribe to see review text.

Vintage Tastings

  • By John Kapon
    Hong Kong Diaries, 10/4/2009

    (Lafite Rothschild) Subscribe to see review text.

  • By John Kapon
    A Week of Golden Cellar Drinking, 11/3/2007

    (Lafite Rothschild) Subscribe to see review text.

  • By John Kapon
    Putting "THE Cellar" In Perspective, 11/5/2006

    (Lafite Rothschild) Subscribe to see review text.

  • By John Kapon
    Top 100 Weekend, Year II, 2005, 11/22/2005

    (Lafite Rotchschild) Subscribe to see review text.

  • By John Kapon
    An Evening of Lafite-Rothschild, 8/15/2005

    (Lafite-Rothschild) Subscribe to see review text.

  • By John Kapon
    DDB and the place to be, 4/22/2005

    (Lafite Rothschild) Subscribe to see review text.

Vinous

  • By Stephen Tanzer
    July/August 2002, IWC Issue #103 (link)

    (Chateau Lafite Rothschild Pauillac) Subscribe to see review text.

JancisRobinson.com

  • By Jancis Robinson, MW
    6/28/2002 (link)

    (Ch Lafite Pauillac Red) Subscribe to see review text.

Wine Definition

  • Vintage 1959
  • Type Red
  • Producer Château Lafite Rothschild
  • Varietal Red Bordeaux Blend
  • Designation n/a
  • Vineyard n/a
  • Country France
  • Region Bordeaux
  • SubRegion Médoc
  • Appellation Pauillac
  • UPC Codes 3700274110807, 8010376002524, 8032790768176, 9300633425111

Community Holdings

  • Pending Delivery 27 (2%)
  • In Cellars 833 (68%)
  • Consumed 373 (30%)

Food Pairing

No food pairings available.

Who Likes This Wine

100% Like It  24 votes

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