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.
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.
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
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.
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.
September 23, 2023 - Jason's birthday and old Bordeaux (Newcastle, WA): Wow, cigar box, deep and plummy. Fabulously complex and vibrant, unreal. Stunning Lafite.
February 18, 2023 - A very well preserved example from K&L with top-to-very top shoulder level fill and moist firm cork which came out intact. There’s a striking brown sugar element that very old Bordeaux occasionally exhibits. Most definitely alive with vestiges of black fruit. Very interesting and evolves constantly in the glass. But don't linger too long; it gave up the ghost after about half an hour and climbed into the grave.
June 25, 2022 - It’s not a good day when your ‘59 Lafite is corked. While others were immediately put off, I took guilty pleasure from ignoring the TCA and drawing from the residue of sweet black cherry underneath, at least for a little while.
June 17, 2022 - elegant velvet nose. Good acidity, silky smooth. So pleasing
April 23, 2022 - Another fantastic bottle. Amazing to again drink a 62 year old wine that is just utterly beautiful, brilliant and complex. Its hard to believe the wine really is that age, as it seems to defy reality: that it actually can! And I would say this wine has more years ahead in great health!
Everything is there still today; Formidable depth, utter refinement, amazing vitality and sublime richness. This wine is just so beautiful that is make one speechless. We all experienced it like that: silence. The 1959 Lafite is an experience of decadence.
I am truly blessed to drink this wine with some great friends again. To bad for most the price of this Lafite has skyrocketed. But nevertheless a privilege to drink.