▴ Château Lafite 1955
Château Lafite 1955
The first vintage produced by André Portet, father of Bernard of California’s Clos du Val and Dominique of Australia’s Taltarni fame. In the Lafite Almanac, they write, “Wines very good, mature, musts incredibly rich and fermentation carefully attended to. The wines were immediately sold on the vine. Nothing was kept, and the Bordeaux merchants came to pick up all the wine”. I have been fortunate to taste this vintage several times and it never ceases to amaze me. On the nose there is hedgerow fruit with a whiff of shoe polish, first impression is a core of autumn bramble fruit, firm tannins, it develops in the glass from a soloist to a wonderful quintet, waves upon waves of mature rich fruit, with the hallmark of Lafite elegance stamped through. A total beauty that just rises and rises in the glass.
Review Feb 2024, SK