2012 Château Lafite Rothschild

Community Tasting Notes (8) Avg Score: 92.9 points

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  9/30/2023 - Ben Christiansen wrote:

  Of the cork pull that smells beautiful. Iron and a touch of tobacco, but with pure fruit flavors as well. Palate is generous, full, and lilthe with lots and lots of depth. Amazing length.

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  3/8/2022 - Cailles wrote: 94 Points

  Bordeaux 2012 - 10 Years On - 33 Reds: All wines tasted blind. Not decanted. A few observations: 1) 2012 is a good quality vintage without the depth/length of great vintages. Still, one of the better “off-vintages”. 2) Many but not all wines are drinking well today. They are generally open, round and fleshed out. 3) Further cellaring is advised as there are hardly any tertiary aromas yet and that extra complexity will render the wines more interesting. The wines generally have the structure and fruit to age gracefully. 4) The level of ripeness/alcohol are not a concern (09, 10, 15, 18 have more problems in that area). 5) Left bank (avg. 92.2 pts) beats right bank (91.0) (group has right bank a notch ahead). The overall group avg. score is at a good 92.1, but unsurprisingly below past retrospectives of better vintages (00, 09, 10). 6) There are highlights on both sides: my best wines today were Ausone (96 pts), Mouton (96), Cheval (95) and Margaux (95).
  
  TN: Fine, expressive, full of ripe dark fruit, crushed rocks. Quite a seductive and sensual bouquet for a wine that is usually not overly approachable in its youth. On the palate additional notes of blueberries, black currant, fine minerality, tobacco, some coffee notes. Quintessential Pauillac, quite complete and already a lot of fun to drink. Velvety tannins, no hard edges, well-measured and -integrated acidity, nice creaminess. This 2012 is quite great and one of the surprises for me: beside a magical 1900 Lafite, I’ve never had a vintage that made my knees weak (but I have limited experience) and hence, Lafite is my No. 5 only in the First Growth hierarchy. I see the classic contours and the finesse but the others show usually more depth without losing in the before mentioned categories. 94+ pts.
  
  Decanting: This did not need much air. Good from the go. Usually, however, Lafite needs one or the other hour to open up.
  
  Group rank: Shared 14th out of 33 reds
  Group average score: 92.0
  
  More information, vintage comparisons, top and worst 10 list, appellation rankings from the group in the story link.

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  2/7/2022 - sirpat00 wrote: 92 Points

  Bordeaux 2012 10 years on tasting: A 2012 Bordeaux vintage horizontal hosted by a private collector. Main observations were: 1/ Left bank beats right bank thanks to Paulliac, St Estèphe and Margaux, 2/ (over-)extraction was a frequent issue, making this a vintage where winemaking decisions and skill mattered, 3/ as such, unsurprisingly, first growths and right bank equivalents clearly outperformed the pack, 4/ highlights were Ausone (97) followed by Cheval Blanc, Mouton, Pichon Lalande (all 96), 5/ the lowlight was an over-extracted Pape Clement (88). Complete ranking and additional observations included in the tasting story.
  
  Tasting note:
  Smoky and leathery with ripe cassis and dark cherry fruit. Also tobacco, scorched earth and maybe some black coffee in the mix too. A much fresher and juicer palate than I would have expected from the nose, but pretty acidic in the end.

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  7/5/2021 - Jeff Leve wrote: 93 Points

  Light in body, better on the nose with its tobacco, cedar, leaf and herbal profile than on its almost rustic, light palate, the wine ends with a strong, green olive and tobacco leaf finish. I am not sure time will bring this much more depth.

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  1/3/2021 - Ryanh8 Likes this wine:

  My first First growth, drank at birthday dinner. Amazing as expected. Not as fruity as I am used to but very very complex, lots of earth and graphite notes with a black fruit underlying it. Very long finish.

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