1998 Château Smith Haut Lafitte

Community Tasting Notes (196) Avg Score: 91.7 points

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  12/16/2023 - AudunG wrote: 88 Points

  Brick color. Cherry like aromas with pronounced oak. Firm and conentrated on the palate, with a rather bitter and woody finish.

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  8/8/2023 - Papies wrote: 92 Points

  1995s & Friends (67 Pall Mall, London): A lovely surprise! This was similar to a cellar defender and came in to substitute the flawed St Henri Shiraz and was paired with a lovely 1998 Ornellaia ( Papies 94) . The priced looked too good on 67PM list so we rolled the dice and got double 6s.
  Granted our experience with left bank 1998s is limited still the memory of the Lady at Lynch Bages a good decade ago arguing that the harshness of the cab is on the way down in 1998s resurfaced.
  Very earthy, well evolved, very classic and devout of the modernity shenanigans that SHL is so much doing for the last decade with their wines ( in all fairness along with so many others who solve for Parker 100) . Randomly beautiful, well evolved, forest floor, earth, light spice and albeit probably past its peak a beautiful 92 maybe even more given the price and vintage.

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  6/16/2023 - DanielAVTL Likes this wine: 92 Points

  * popped and poured 60 minutes before serving, paired well with red-wine-braised short ribs and risotto.
  
  Color, very dark and solid core, inky purple rim, no bricking or sign of age. On the nose, stunning aromas of dark cherry, plum, leather, anise, tar and smoke. Very seductive.
  
  On the palate - fully mature, silky soft tannins, opulent and round with a medium to full body. Structure here is just solid enough to hold the wine together.
  
  Overall, a very classic Pessac, with very good complexity, depth and balance. Not brilliant, but very good. 92 points on the night, drink up now.

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  4/30/2023 - Collector1855 wrote: 93 Points

  Glorious tertiary Bordeaux aromas with forest floor, dark fruit, some brett. The tannins are a bit rustic, the cooler vintage showing. Aroma 95, palate 91.

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  1/6/2023 - peanutbutterskittles Likes this wine: 94 Points

  Still has some power. Leather, graphite; and has a bit more body and fruit than the 1998 Lynch Bages we had along side this. Really a wonderful wine at the end of its drinking window.

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