1959 Château Lafite Rothschild
Community Tasting Note
misterstarre Likes this wine:
Sunday, 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.
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