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Neal Martin, April 2025, Score: 95-97
According to Technical Director Eric Kohler, the 2024 Lafite-Rothschild was picked from September 23 to October 7 and underwent a short vinification—less than three weeks—plus a gentle extraction. The blend includes 16% vin de presse. It has an understated and typical Lafite nose with crushed stone infusing the black fruit, black olive tapenade and marine scents. It comes across as statesmanlike, which is just how you want your First Growth, even in a tricky vintage like this. The palate is medium-bodied with fresh saline notes on the entry. Tensile from the start, this has very impressive focus and is a tad more peppery than previous vintages. This is an assured Lafite-Rothschild with a very seaweed/Japanese wakame-tinged finish. Very promising and one of the very few "cerebral" Left Bank wines in 2024.
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Antonio Galloni, April 2025, Score: 94-96
The 2024 Lafite-Rothschild is a sensual, elegant wine very much in the style of the year. Plush and enveloping, with lovely forward fruit, the 2024 is very Lafite, perhaps a bit reticent, but super-expressive just the same. Black cherry, pomegranate, blood orange and a kiss of espresso all build in the glass, framed by quintessentially finessed Lafite tannins. The 2024 is sublime. I expect it will be one of the top wines in the Médoc when all is said and done.
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James Suckling, May 2025, Score: 96-97
A more Burgundian vintage for Lafite, with cedar, graphite, paprika, white pepper and fresh red fruit. Nuanced and refined, with a medium body and understated fruit. Intensity and concentration. It shows the Lafite hallmark of elegance, with more fluidity and crunch this year. Very long and delicate. 96% cabernet sauvignon, 3% merlot and 1% petit verdot.
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Matthew Jukes, April 2025, Score: 19+
It’s always lovely to taste with Saskia de Rothschild, and her fabulously chilled-out comment, “This is an early drinking, accessible Lafite for a new clientele”, is certainly accurate, although I am sure old duffers and even middle-aged wine connoisseurs will be queuing up for this vintage, too. Whispers abounded that the Lafite family of wines would be endeavouring to attach CPR pads to the notion of En Primeur purchasing by coming out early and with eye-catching prices. Let’s hope this is borne out because this is not only a wine for newcomers and experts alike, but if this vintage turns out to be anyone’s first sip of this famous First Growth, it is a cosmic place to start. Linear, lithe, cool, chiselled and dynamic, this is a long, pure, pristine wine with hints of sea spray, fresh-picked blueberries and thrillingly carnal new leather nuances among the glorious summer pudding core. There is musicality, levity, grace and direction here, and the very first words at the top of my tasting pad were ‘modern Lafite for a new era’! The control and beauty found are effortless and sensationally well-balanced. The tannins and acidity lose nothing in translation, balancing the medium-weight fruit with trueness and thrilling sense equilibrium. Forget vintage reports, the various trials and tribulations and Lafite’s own running theme of battling through the elements while rounding Cape Horn on a galley; this is quite simply as ‘Lafite’ as any vintage I have tasted in a long while, and the fact that it tastes so singular, identifiable and delicious, makes me love it more. I am awarding a QP here on rumour alone. Let’s hope I don’t delete it in post-production!
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Jancis Robinson, April 2025, Score: 17+
Discreet nose with a dark-fruit nuance and typical Lafite elegance. Suave attack, the tannins smooth and refined. Lots of freshness. Very digeste with innate drinkability but clearly well within itself as well. Touch of oak on the finish. Early days. (JL)
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Goedhuis Waddesdon, April 2025, Score: 97-98
No wine expresses better the importance of terroir, meticulous work throughout the year, and most importantly, why Cabernet Sauvignon is King of the Médoc, than Lafite 2024. Patience was the name of the game here; 96% of the blend is comprised of Cabernet picked in October, allowing for full fruit maturity from the best parcels on the Lafite plateau. A scintillating array of aromatics, sloe, damson and blueberry with a touch of herbal lift. It quite simply flows across the tongue, with sandy, fine-grained tannins. Very composed in nature, with subtle graphite undertones, lavender florality and pomegranate lift all in the mix. There is no doubting the breeding of this wine, this is an absolute thoroughbred!
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Jane Anson, April 2025, Score: 95
Rich texture, this stands head and shoulders above many in the vintage, with graphite, crayon, cassis bud rather than exuberant black fruits, this is precise, savoury, delineated, floral, gunsmoke, juicy, captures the effortless elegance that Lafite does so so well, and it totally delivers. Harvest 23 September to 7 October, 32hl/h yield, above the Pauillac average, 16% press wine included in the blend. Director Eric Kohler's 33rd year in Pauillac. I am giving a slightly earlier begin drinking date, but I am certain this will age exceptionally well as Lafite always does. Slightly earlier starting date for drinking than usual, eight years following harvest.
