Château Smith Haut Lafitte 2023

After a hot-blooded 2022, the 2023 Smith Haut-Laffite shows tremendous freshness; complex bouquet, deep, cool in expression; a fresh, racy palate, straightforward, with bite, top tannin quality, lots of dynamism, great tension; excellent length. Very Bordeaux, very energetic.

Dark and fragrant nose, scented and intense but not too rich or ripe, more cool, crisp and fresh. Aromatics of roses, floral elements and potpourri – very welcoming. Big-boned, this expands and gains intensity from the start, with powdery tannins filling the mouth around a juicy core and layers of freshness: mint, graphite, wet stones, herbs, cocoa and liquorice. Not as immediately suave, soft and caressing as SHL can be; this is more serious, straighter and more streamlined. Still finessed, but it has muscle, forward and direct. It’s a beauty but will need time to open up and soften further. Still very much about Cabernet aromatics and power. I do like its density; there is richness here, it’s not all straight, and the tannins are filling. This has lovely potential with chewy strawberry and cranberry flavours. You don’t get a sense of overt warmth thanks to a cool freshness and almost austere acidity, but it offers freshness and tension as well as ripeness. 1% Petit Verdot completes the blend. pH 3.65. Yield of 26 hl/ha, more or less the same as usual, winemaker Fabien Teitgen said.

This shows currant, tobacco and hazelnut aromas that follow through to a medium body with crunchy character and open-grain tannins that are velvety and so attractive. Graceful, friendly, crunchy and beautiful. The highest percentage ever of cabernet sauvignon in this wine. 70% cabernet sauvignon, 23% merlot, 6% cabernet franc and 1% petit verdot. From biodynamically grown grapes. Best after 2028.

Chocolate, smoke, blackberries, roses, spices and flowers are on display with only a swirl or two. The palate is even better with its fresh, energetic, full-bodied, creamy display of sweet, ripe, vibrant, elegant, polished black, with red fruit profile. The wine is long, intense, focused, and complex, with a nice aromatic display in the mouth in the finish, which sticks with you for almost 50 seconds. The wine is a blend of 70% Cabernet Sauvignon, 23% Merlot, 6% Cabernet Franc and 1% Petit Verdot. Drink from 2028-2055.

This is just a beautiful Cabernet Sauvignon wine: cassis, bilberry, blueberry, iris flowers, crushed violets, mint leaf, squid ink… packing in secondary waves of flavour and aromatics—sit back and enjoy. It’s easy to smile at the precision on display here: delicate, yet with an intensity and concentration that tiptoes across the palate. Fabulous. Fabien Teitgen, the winemaker, is on his 28th vintage and his 24th as technical director. This is the vintage when King Charles and Camilla visited, so it has a special label. Yields are 26 hl/ha for the reds here.

Score: 95–97. An extraordinary, highly seductive bouquet that invites you into a boudoir filled with incense and flowers (peony, rose, violet). The flowers are freshly picked, full of sap, and their fresh fragrance rises to the nose. The wine is monumental on the palate, with a steel-like structure to support it. Exquisitely poised, as if suspended in the middle of the mouth, above the tongue, it is a ball of juicy, graceful, fragrant, agile, and bewitching energy. Then the wine gains breadth and fills the entire mouth. The savory salinity that arrives on the finish is invigorating. Very refined, with an aristocratic bitterness on the finish.

The bouquet of Smith Haut Lafitte gradually reveals itself, yet immediately highlights the impact of Cabernet Sauvignon. It shows notes of blackcurrant along with hints of eucalyptus, followed by sweet spices and then a touch of praline. Compact on the attack, the wine features silky tannins that slowly build and ultimately settle on the finish, where they provide a solid backbone. They form a valuable link with the acidic structure that brings balance and ensures a welcome freshness in this rich context. An elegant, vibrant, mouthwatering wine with a persistent finish.

The grand vin retains its rectitude: 70% Cabernet, 23% Merlot, a garnet-hued rim with a velvety appearance, a bouquet of iris, ink, blackcurrant and rose confit, tannins of great class—elegant and harmonious—a suave, very long palate highlighted by black fruits, blackcurrant, blueberry, then graphite. A firm, refreshing finish.

95-97. Barrel Sample. With a much higher percentage of Cabernet Sauvignon than usual, because of problems with Merlot during the growing season, this is a rich wine with spice and dark-fruit aromas. It has a ripe character with swathes of pure black fruits. The wine is structured with a fine potential.

Decidedly not shy, with a warm, rolling wave of mocha and bittersweet cocoa leading the way, followed by generous notes of plum reduction, blackberry preserves and melted black licorice. Roasted vanilla, chestnut and sweet tobacco infuse the finish liberally, while a loamy element keeps it all steady. For fans of the power style. Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, Cabernet Franc and Petit Verdot. Best from 2027 through 2040. 10,000 cases made, 2,400 cases imported.

Deep colour with dark highlights. An intense, refined, subtle and pure nose, unfolding into a complex note of ink and blackberries as the glass is swirled. Precise on the attack, very fruity, with a tender mid-palate; the wine melts across the palate, long and sappy, with the site’s noble aromas. Very good, and more easy-going than it sometimes is.

Confirming the impression it conveyed en primeur, the 2023 Smith Haut Lafitte is a superb effort, offering aromas of liquorice, spices, dark berries, rose petals and clove. Medium- to full-bodied, dense and architecturally structured, it is built around a fleshy, concentrated core of fruit, supported by abundant, seamlessly integrated tannins, culminating in a long, mineral and penetrating finish. The decision to extend macerations—favoring gentle, prolonged extraction over short, forceful cuvaison—has endowed the wine with both textural refinement and the structural reserves to reward long cellaring.