The Drinks Business

(Pauillac; 94% Cabernet Sauvignon; 5% Merlot; 1% Petit Verdot; a final yield of 27 hl/ha; pH 3.70; 12.5% alcohol; tasted with Eric Kohler at Duhart-Milon). The extremely high percentage of Cabernet Sauvignon in the blend should not deceive - it's actually around the average for the last 10 years. This is staggeringly beautiful, cool and haunting as I somehow knew it would be. It captures the essence of the vintage better than any other single wine. The attack is utterly sublime, just divine, with a touch of violet alongside the intense but soft, subtle and delicate dark berry fruits. There's plungepool clarity and freshness in its shimmering depth and great concentration at the core. A wine of breathtaking potential but also one that is brilliantly accessible. Long and gently tapering on the finish with the return of those hauntingly beautiful violet notes. Un Lafite absolu! A wine that breaks my scoring system; it couldn't be anything other than 100 points.

Jean-Marc Quarin

James Suckling

Alexandre Ma

Without doubt, the 2025 vintage will stand as a defining highlight in the history of Château Lafite Rothschild. Here, power, elegance, purity, and restraint coexist within a single, harmonious space. The nose opens with blackcurrant and black goji berry, vivid and precise yet softly shrouded beneath a veil of agarwood-like smoke, shaping an aromatic landscape that feels both profound and dreamlike. What lingers most is its almost monochrome expression on the palate: tannins, dark as ink, lay down a deep, shadowed canvas, while the freshness of acidity and the clarity of fruit emerge like light breaking through. From this interplay of contrast alone, a richly layered and dimensional world unfolds, each sip drawing you deeper, until you are fully immersed.

Vinous

The 2025 Lafite-Rothschild was cropped at 27 hl/ha between September 2 and 20. Eric Kohler mentioned that, unlike 2022, it underwent a longer maceration than usual because, after 24 days, he felt the wine was at ease with itself and there was no excess. That comes through completely on the deliriously intoxicating nose, replete with nuanced blackberry, bilberry and estuarine scents, all beautifully defined and seamlessly integrated with the 90% new oak that is made from Lafite’s own cooper. The palate is medium-bodied with finely chiselled tannins. It is blessed with extraordinary harmony and it is so well balanced that you almost overlook the weight and minéralité towards the finish. Just a dab of graphite lingers on the aftertaste. This is a very succinct and refined Lafite-Rothschild that I suspect will drink earlier than the 2022, yet will age with equal grace in bottle. I admit that, upon returning to my car, it was only then that I realised what a brilliant wine the 2025 Lafite-Rothschild is destined to become.

The Wine Palate

Deep garnet-purple colored, the 2025 Lafite Rothschild waltzes out of the glass with flamboyant notes of warm cassis, fresh black plums, and iris, giving way to nuances of star anise, fertile loam, and underbrush, with a touch of black truffles. The light-bodied palate offers an exhilarating texture of silky yet firm tannins—uniquely Lafite—plus incredible tension with a level of fruit and phenolic ripeness that is seemingly impossible at this low level of alcohol. The finish is long with lingering sparkles of mineral and floral notes. The blend is 94% Cabernet Sauvignon, 5% Merlot, and 1% Petit Verdot. 16% press wine was used. It has a pH of 3.65 and the alcohol is 12.4%.