Chateau Smith Haut Lafitte 2008
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Product Details
Your Rating
Somm Note
Winemaker Notes
Professional Ratings
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James Suckling
What a nose here. Dark chocolate, raspberries, blueberries and mineral aromas. Full bodied, with ultra-polished tannins and a long, long finish. Wonderfully structured. Classy. Try it after 2014.
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Decanter
The 2008 Château Smith-Haut-Lafitte is still going strong and is a classic wine from this reference point estate in the Graves region. A blend of 60% Cabernet Sauvignon, 32% Merlot, 7% Cabernet Franc and the rest Petit Verdot aged in 80% new barrels, it offers textbook notes of crème de cassis, cedar pencil, loamy earth, and smoked earth/cold fireplace. Concentrated, ripe, and sexy on the palate, with ripe tannins, it shows the straight, focused style of the vintage. Drink it any time over the coming 10-15 years.
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
One of the stars of the vintage, this elegant, smoky wine has hints of barbecue pit intermixed with sweet black currants and cherries. Dark purple and medium to full-bodied, its impressive finesse and wonderful purity make for a surprisingly forward style of Smith-Haut-Lafitte to drink over the next 15 or so years.
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Wine Enthusiast
An elegant wine, smooth and rounded, bringing out smoky fruits over tannins that smooth out as the fruit unfolds. Less opulent than some previous vintages, the wine shows restraint and aging potential.
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Wine Spectator
This expressive red shows intensity with grace, balancing pure black cherry, mineral and tobacco flavors with toasty oak and fresh acidity. The tannins are firm but ripe, fading to a floral, smoky finish.
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Thanks to its 55 hectares of superb gravelly vineyards, Smith Haut Lafitte is often referred to as the "archetypical Graves." The estate's history goes back to the Crusades, and a Scottish navigator, George Smith, who became the owner of the estate in the 18th century. He was followed by M. Duffour-Dubergier, Mayor of Bordeaux, and then Louis Eschenauer, a famous wine shipper.
In 1990, Daniel and Florence Cathiard also fell under the spell of this beautiful estate. Since then, they have restored the 16th century tower, renovated the 18th century manor house, built two underground cellars, went back to traditional vine growing methods without chemical herbicides and set up their own cooperage. The perfect elegance, excellent balance and fine structure of Smith Haut Lafitte's red and white wines are the ultimate reflection of the current owners' total commitment to quality.