Lafite Rothschild 2010 (3.0L)

100 DE / 100 JA / 100 WA / 100 JS / 100 WE / 99+ WA / 98 RP / 97 FS / 19 JR

This vintage featured a cold winter and cool weather at flowering, followed by a dry summer with a hot July and warm days and cool nights in August and September. The season delivered a wine with an inky dark colour and bright aromas of blackcurrant and spice with a distinctive floral edge. The texture is lively and crisp, with plenty of freshness, firm tannins, and impressive length. This wine will be best after another 10 years in bottle and will easily last 50 years beyond that. This superb, vibrant wine is a blend of 87% Cabernet Sauvignon and 13% Merlot with no Cabernet Franc or Petit Verdot in the grand vin. Drinking Window 2032 - 2082 - Charles Curtis MW, Decanter

Perfectly captures the Lafite mix of delivering concentration wrapped up with delicacy and slow-build construction, with the tannins showing a scraping, chalky minerality at first and then widening out through the mid palate to reveal a creamier edge. Cut herbs, liquorice, fennel, cassis, bilberry, loganberry, cigar box, incense. More closed than the 2009, as you would expect, but this is right up there with the greatest wines of the vintage, and one that you will be able to pick out of a cellar in 30 years time without the slightest worry. Brilliant. 100% new oak for ageing, from their own DBR Lafite cooperage. And once again, having this wine among the rest of the lineup during a comparative tasting is so instructive in terms of understanding the extra depths that you get from Lafite.-Jane Anson, Inside Bordeaux, tasted 9/24

Deep garnet in color, the 2010 Lafite Rothschild is a little mute on the nose at this stage, opening to reveal warm blackcurrants, baked plums and boysenberry scents with hints of chocolate mint, violets, cedar chest and pencil lead. Full-bodied, rich and densely packed with perfumed black fruit layers, it has a rock-solid backbone of fantastically ripe, grainy tannins and beautiful freshness, finishing very long and minerally. Still very youthful! March 2020. - Lisa Perrotti-Brown, The Wine Advocate

Believe the hype. Lafite is perfect in 2010. The nose is amazing with sweet tobacco, dark chocolate and currants. It is amazing. It’s like gazing into the blue sky in wonder after tasting this young wine. Full and powerful with amazing minerals, currants and bitter chocolate. It starts off slowly and then finishes with a bang. This is really layered and wonderful. It goes on and on. Stunning. - James Suckling

Almost black in color, this stunning wine is gorgeous, rich and dense. It's grand and powerful, with a strong sense of its own importance. The beautiful tannins and the fragrant black currant fruits are palpable. It's a great wine, with huge potential. - Roger Voss, Wine Enthusiast

The Lafite-Rothschild 2010 is a blend of 87.2% Cabernet Sauvignon and the rest Merlot. It has a very sophisticated bouquet that demands a little more encouragement compared to the Mouton-Rothschild tasted earlier on this day. But it is worth the effort as it reveals wonderful graphite infused black fruit that boast bewitching focus and delineation. The palate is medium-bodied with grippy, firm tannins that encase some fabulous, exuberant Cabernet Sauvignon: blackberry, a touch of fresh date, Christmas cake and kirsch. It is extremely well focused, less flamboyant than the 2009, but utterly harmonious and “complete”. This is a future legend that will vie with the 2009 Lafite. Spellbinding! Tasted November 2012.-Neal Martin, The Wine Advocate

The 2010 Lafite Rothschild, a blend of 87% Cabernet Sauvignon and 13% Merlot (a 3% difference from the barrel sample shown two years ago), achieved relatively high alcohol of 13.32%, according to administrator Charles Chevalier. The wine is very impressive, not as fleshy, flamboyant and massive as the 2009, but nevertheless, a big, rich, full-throttle Lafite-Rothschild meant to age a half century or more. Deep purple, with notes of white chocolate, mocha, cedar and charcoal as well as hints of vanillin and creme de cassis, the wine is full-bodied yet has that ethereal lightness that makes it a Lafite. Rich, with good acidity, precision and freshness, this is a slightly zestier version of the 2009 as well as more restrained and structured than that particular vintage. It will need at least 10-12 years of cellaring and keep for 50+ years. 98 points. - Robert Parker, Wine Advocate