Château Smith Haut-Lafitte 2019

Critic scores

• Jeb Dunnuck98
• Wine Enthusiast98
• Vinous97
• Decanter95

The 2019 vintage in Pessac-Léognan

Vintage benchmark: 96/100 (appellation benchmark, not a score for this wine)

Vintage character: A hot end of summer after a rainy spring gave wines that hold ripeness and freshness together; the cabernets shine here.

Overall reading of the year’s season across Pessac-Léognan. An estate can depart from it sharply, in frost or hail years, where two neighbours did not make the same vintage. What this particular wine actually gave is on its technical sheet and in the scores above.

Tasting

The 2019 vintage was divided into two ripening phases: the first dry and hot, giving small, concentrated berries rich in tannin; the second cooler and slightly humid, allowing a gentle end to ripening, preserving freshness and softening the tannins. The Merlots thus show great substance and power, while the Cabernets have a style with more length and freshness. The wine is very dark red, almost black. The nose is expressive, with notes of black fruit (blackberry, blackcurrant, blueberry) and a few notes of cherry. One then perceives great spice complexity (clove, cinnamon, liquorice) and small touches of gunflint very characteristic of the graves. The palate is 'easily' approachable, broad, powerful, dense, with a soft, caressing texture. The mid-palate is full and concentrated, with great length. Definitely a delight combining power, concentration, softness of texture and a 'very lively' dynamic! The aromatics on the palate, very long, bring out great complexity where spice and very terroir-driven empyreumatic notes come to balance the fruit notes. Smith Haut Lafitte 2019: elegance and softness do not exclude power.

Blend of the 2019 vintage

Figures from the 2019 sheet

• 36 hl/haYield
• 38 yrsVine age
• 120,000 bottlesProduction

Winemaking

as whole berries in small wooden vats at 28°C, extraction carried out by hand punching down.

Ageing

18 months in barrels (60% new barrels made in our own in-house cooperage), ageing on lees, a single racking, then ageing adjusted for each wine.

Terroir

The terroir has such a strong personality that it gave the region its name: "Les Graves". These graves are an accumulation of alluvial, sandy and stony deposits laid down on a Tertiary limestone subsoil by the turbulent rivers and glaciers of the early Quaternary era, subsequently reshaped into gravel rises by erosion. At Smith Haut Lafitte, the soil is made up of one of the rare Günzian gravel rises, thick and ochre in colour, a sign of its richness in iron oxide. This soil is of high quality for viticulture because it is at once free-draining, very poor and warm at the surface, while maintaining a degree of coolness and moisture at depth (clay or limestone).