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Chateau Lafite Rothschild Pauillac : $1,499.99

Wine Details

Vintage: 2005
Price: $1,499.99
Producer: Chateau Lafite Rothschild
Region: Pauillac
Varietal: Bordeaux - Red
Container Size: 750 ML
Flavors:
  • Award Winning
  • Red Wine
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Product Description

  • The quality of Château Lafite Rothschild needs no introduction. As early as 1815, Abraham Lawton had already designated it as leader: “I ranked it as being the most elegant and delicate, with the finest body of the three (leading wines)” he qualified in 1855. As to Château Lafite traits shared by all vintage years, it was an enlightened amateur that summed it up best by saying “...whatever the case, all the Château Lafite wines have an almond and violet aroma!”

Expert Ratings

Ratings   Vintage Source Flavors
Tanzer - 92-95 Details: (a blend of 82% cabernet sauvignon, 26% merlot and 2% cabernet franc) Bright ruby-red. Compellingly pure, scented aromas of blackcurrant, violet, graphite, dark chocolate and licorice. Rich, broad and classically dry, with slightly inky but very savory, perfumed flavors of black fruits and minerals. Classic, cooler-styled claret that saturates the palate with flavor while coming across as virtually weightless. At once sinewy and elegant. Finishes with superb grip and surprising, subtle persistence. This may not have the flesh of a great collectible vintage, but it will be hard to beat this wine for sheer finesse in 2006. 2006 Tanzer dark chocolate, graphite, licorice, minerals, violet
Tanzer - 93-96 Details: (88.8% cabernet sauvignon, 10.7% merlot and 0.5% petit verdot) Bright ruby-red. Discreet aromas of crushed cassis, cedar and cool licorice. Juicy, very tight and penetrating, with brooding black fruit, graphite and mineral flavors. At once suave and austere, with very firm but fine-grained tannins and slowly mounting flavors that go on and on. This has an IPT of 70, like the 2003, but has a slightly lower pH and higher acidity (3.3 grams, vs. just 3 for the 2003). And the alcohol here is just 12.9%. My score may prove to be conservative. This wine is a cinch to develop in bottle for three decades or more, and should probably not be broached until at least 2017. 2005 Tanzer black fruit, cassis, cedar, graphite, licorice, mineral
Tanzer - 93 Details: ($168-$230) Medium ruby-red. Scented nose offers plum, mocha, licorice, graphite, flowers and tobacco. Suave, silky and fine-grained, with lovely inner-mouth aromatic character and energy. Perfumed flavors of redcurrant, minerals and cedar. Finishes very long and firm, with terrific grip for this mostly gentle vintage. 2004 Tanzer cassis, cedar, licorice, minerals, violet
Tanzer - 93(+?)? Details: ($339-$500) Full red-ruby color. Captivating aromas of cassis, cherry, tobacco, mocha, coffee and leather, with a complicating element of dried oregano and thyme. At once silky and penetrating in the mouth, with very firm acids for the vintage giving shape and thrust to the dense flavors of currant, tobacco and iodine. Finishes with broad, dusty tannins and superb persistence. Although this appears to be built for two or three decades of life in bottle, I miss the primary fruit character and the mineral and floral high notes of the more classic vintages of this wine. 2003 Tanzer blueberry, coconut, dark chocolate, flowers, fresh herbs, licorice, medicinal, minerals, redcurrant, tobacco
Tanzer - 92(+?) Details: ($130-$175) Bright, dark ruby-red. Subdued but pure aromas of currant, plum, minerals, graphite, and sexy, coconutty oak; showed a floral note with aeration. Extremely suave, fine-grained and concentrated, with a strong spine of acidity. Finishes firmly tannic, subtle and very long. This should develop slowly. 2002 Tanzer bitter, blueberry, camphor, cassis, cedar, cherry, chocolate, violet
Tanzer - 93 Details: ($150-$179) Bright red-ruby. Sexy aromas of raspberry, cedar, coconut, minerals, lead pencil, chocolate and tobacco leaf. Juicy, lively and penetrating, with sharply delineated flavors of blackberry, raspberry and rose petal. Boasts the classic inner-mouth energy of this great first growth, but also grew increasingly silky with extended aeration. Finishes with tongue-coating tannins and superb lift. 2001 Tanzer bitter, camphor, cassis, chocolate, licorice, minerals, mint, violet
Tanzer - 93 Details: ($150-$179) Bright red-ruby. Sexy aromas of raspberry, cedar, coconut, minerals, lead pencil, chocolate and tobacco leaf. Juicy, lively and penetrating, with sharply delineated flavors of blackberry, raspberry and rose petal. Boasts the classic inner-mouth energy of this great first growth, but also grew increasingly silky with extended aeration. Finishes with tongue-coating tannins and superb lift. 93 points 2001 Tanzer blackberry, cedar, chocolate, coconut, lead pencil, minerals, raspberry, rose petal, tobacco leaf
Tastings - 90-95 Details: Saturated red-purple hue. Brooding cassis and tobacco aromas. Rich and deeply fruited with strong cassis flavors matched by rich, assertive tannins that grip the finish. A well-structured wine with fine acidity. Quite classic and a nice rendition of austere Pauillac cabernet sauvignon. This should be a fine cellaring prospect 2001 Tastings cassis, tobacco
Tanzer - 96 Details: ($350-$475) Full medium ruby. Flamboyantly perfumed aromas of cassis, graphite and tobacco, lifted by a floral nuance and stony minerality. Very young and precise but not austere or forbidding. A remarkably rich, silky, seamless Lafite with superb vibrancy for the vintage. Tannins are noble and the aristocratic finishing flavors go on and on. I tasted this from a 375 ml. bottle, but from all reports this wine is equally approachable right now from a standard bottle. Has more sheer density than the beautiful 2001 and may well soon shut down in the bottle. 2000 Tanzer cassis, graphite, stony, tobacco
Tanzer - 93-96 Details: Bright medium ruby. Pure, perfumed aromas of blackberry, cassis, licorice, lead pencil, violet and minerals. Extremely primary and pure, with sharply defined cassis, violet and mineral flavors of great class. Conveys a rare lightness of touch for today Bordeaux. Finishing flavors grip the palate in a way too few wines from this vintage do. Very strong but subtle on the back end 93-96 points 2000 Tanzer blackberry, cassis, lead pencil, licorice, mineral, minerals, violet
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Food Pairings

Category Pairing
Cheese Mozzarella, Sharp Cheddar, Blue Cheese, Feta, Goat Cheese
Red Meat Roast Beef, Beef Stew, Lamb, Lamb Stew, Salami, Sausage, Variety Meats or Organ Meats, Kidney
Poultry & Eggs Spicy Chicken Dishes
Vegetables Ratatouille
Sauces Red Wine Sauce
Herbs & Spices Anise, Fennel Seed, Tarragon, Bay Leaf, Lavender, Mint, Rosemary, Thyme
Cheese Aged Cheddar

Awards and Accolades

  Name Vintage
Award Winner 100 Best Wines - 2008 - Wine & Spirits 2005

Wine Terms

Name Value
Bordeaux A region in western France that grows famous red wines from the Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, and Cabernet Franc grapes and white wines from Sauvignon Blanc, Sémillon and Muscadelle grapes. Situated on the Atlantic coast, Bordeaux has a maritime climate with warm summers and fairly mild winters as well as an abundance of rain during harvest time. When young, the finest red Bordeaux wines have a deep cranberry hue and aromas of blackcurrants, plums, spice, cedar, and cassis. For the first ten years or so these wines can be very dry, with tannin masking the fruity flavors. Eventually the wines turn garnet, and develops an extraordinarily complex bouquet and flavor as well as softer tannins. The finest red Bordeaux wines still take 20 years or so before reaching their maturity. Two distinct red wine production zones exist within the Bordeaux region; the Left Bank and the Right Bank. The Left Bank vineyards are located west of the Garonne River and the Gironde Estuary, into which the Garonne empties. The Right Bank vineyards are east and north of the Dordogne River and east of the Grionde Estuary. Of the various wine districts on the Left and Right Banks, four are the most important for red wines: Haut-Médoc; Pessac-Leognan, St-Emilion, and Pomerol. For white wines, the most important are Graves and Pessac-Leognan.
France France is the standard bearer for all the world’s wines, with regard to the types of grapes that are used to make wine and with the system of defining and regulating winemaking. Its Appellation d’Origine Controlee, or AOC system, is the legislative model for most other European countries. Most French wines are named after places. The system is hierarchical; generally the smaller and more specific the region for which a wine is named, the higher its rank. There are four possible ranks of French wine, and each is always stated on the label: Appellation Contrôlée (or AOC), Vin Délimité de Qualité Supérieure (or VDQS); Vin de pays, or country wine; and Vin de table. France has five major wine regions, although there are several others that make interesting wines. The three major regions for red wine are Bordeaux, Burgundy, and the Rhone; for white wines, the regions are Burgundy, the Loire and Alsace. Each region specialized in certain grape varieties for its wines, based on climate, soil, and local tradition. Two other significant French wine regions are Provence and Languedoc-Roussillon, both in the south of France. Cahors, in the southwest of the country, produces increasingly good wines.
Pauillac (poy yac)— a commune in the Haut Medoc district of Bordeaux. Its wines are rich, powerful, firm and tannic, with blackcurrant and cedar aroma and flavors. Home to three of Bordeaux’s most famous wines: Lafitte-Rothschild, Mouton-Rothschild, and Latour.

Tasting Notes

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