June 19, 2019 - Had already felt that something was wrong when I discovered a bit of wine having leaked out when bringing home from the merchant, so decided to check on it. To my horror, i found that the cork had completely sunk into the wine! So came a series of decanting etc, hoping to “rescue” as much of the liquid still in the bottle. Fortunately managed to do it, and cleared off most of the sediments - the sample I got tasted pretty fine, albeit very well aged.
Color of deep garnet, and a highly complex nose telling of secondary ans tertiary development, what with coffee grounds, chocolate, cigarbox, moss, mushrooms, and a bit meaty. Feels well-rounded on the palate, with tannins mostly resolved, but still a good flavor punch from blackberry and sour cherry, as well as coffee, nutmeg, paprika, and somewhat like a meat and mushroom sauce. The alcohol heat was high though, and a bit distracting. The finish was long, mostly of the moss and dried meats
May 19, 2014 - Bouteille meilleure encore que la précédente. Excellent, long, et très présent, gras et concentré, herbes amères, café, chocolat, clou de girofle, algues, minéralité, pureté, bonne mâche et acidité parfaite, tannins fondus, mûre et cassis débordant... à son sommet.
April 13, 2014 - Vraiment un château très plaisant... Après les 98 et 2000 que j'ai trouvé excellents, celui-ci rejoint les deux autres : excellent aussi !
Très beau rubis nuancé de cerise et d'un soupçon d'ocre orange... très minéral, fumé, un peu corsé, épices et herbes amères, algues, menthe, pointe de cherry et de cerise, mûre, tabac (cigare), se tâte bien, bonne mâche, longueur en bouche. Excellent.
April 5, 2013 - Winebid bottle. Yop shoulder fill. Saturate cork that fell in. Brown wine, some pepper on the nose and palate but otherwise rather old and tired, probably oxidize. I waxed and waned about whether this was past prime or a poor oxidized bottle and just decided it wasn't enjoyable and opened something else. 78, likely flawed.
After a few hours in a decanter I decided this wasn't flawed, just old. Minty, tired, lacking fruit, but gained some substance.
February 4, 2012 - Still a youthful deep garnet in color, not much aging evident. But age is definitely showing on the nose and palate. Subdued dark berries w tobacco. A rather tired wine only managing some interesting mint and roundness at the end. Fruit is all but gone. Mid-bodied, rather elegant thou. Acidic and short finish. Over the hill. http://sgbordeaux.blogspot.com/2012/02/lafon-rochet-1985.html
February 8, 2011 - Way better then last bottle. Popped and poured. This is medium to full-body, full of fruit and soft herbs, virtually no tannins left. Great dinner-wine.
November 23, 2010 - A bit thin, but overall a complete wine. Fruit and forest and some herbs as well. Nicely developped tertiaries. Time to drink up, though.
June 23, 2009 - poured out one glass for fun and let the rest breathe for ~2 hours. Chocolate covered cherries and licorice root on the nose. Raisined cranberries and dried ginger on the palate. A strong bit of tannin still left, but it was very fine/dusty on the finish so not unlikeable. A bit vegetal for sure. It really was like packing a bunch of yummy fruits into an empty vegetable stock can and forgetting about them until they shriveled (but miraculously did not mold!) a year later.
Mostly Cab, a large portion merlot... some cab franc and petit verdot.
February 15, 2009 - Wine of the night at our Valentine dinner. The aromatic nose, still strong fruit and deep color all helped, served with the cheese course and it stood up to stilton.